One Village, One Product Movement Gathering Strength in Cambodia
The Seventh National Day for the promotion of Khmer products will be celebrated today (April 9), under the theme ‘Sustainable Production and Supply to the Market – One Village, One Product Movement (OVOP).’ The movement encourages producers, farmers, artisans, traders and service providers to form collective production groups or communities, rather than competing individually and locally, and strive to use the potential of the villages.
The definition of OVOP in Cambodia refers to products that are produced by people in one or more villages, products reflecting ancient and modern culture and tradition, products having the potential to be strengthened and expanded in quality, quantity and beauty to create value addition, products registered in OVOP system and endorsed by the OVOP National Committee.
A study sponsored by Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF) found that Cambodian SMEs could produce products and sell them not only in the domestic market but also in the international one, but they seem to have limited knowledge regarding the international market and how to expand their markets.
Another important issue was related to access to finance. The Cambodian SMEs, featured in the study, experienced a lack of internal finance to expand their business. The production process of SMEs was also found to be labour-intensive and relies mostly on handmade processes, which results in a rather long and costly production mechanism.
