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Cambodian Women Rising To Tap Global Fishery Products Market

Using modern techniques in the post-harvesting, drying fish in a solar dryer dome. Credit: UNIDO Cambodia By Vijian Paramasivam PHNOM PENH, May 30 (Bernama) -- Cambodian women are stepping up in the fishery products sector, transforming their roles from traditional producers to key players in the global market. Enterprising women entrepreneurs, dominating at least 60 per cent of the micro and small informal enterprises, are now upgrading their post-harvest processing skills in the fishery sector to penetrate high-end markets. bootstrap slideshow The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation's (UNIDO) CAPFISH-Capture - a post-harvest fisheries development project - is helping Cambodian women to upskill, shifting from their archaic fish processing techniques to world-recognised standards. 'We supported over 51 fishery enterprises and their value chain actors in upgrading their businesses. Thirty-five of these enterprises are led by women and three persons with disabilities. 'We are now linking them with global buyers from the EU (European Union). Some of the enterprises have already started exporting to China, South Korea and Australia,' UNIDO's CAPFISH-Capture Chief Technical Advisor Dr Shetty Seetharama Thombathu told Bernama. CAPFISH-Capture is a five-year project, co-funded by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO in coordination with the Cambodia Fisheries Administration. Fishing is a vital economic lifeline for Cambodia. About six million people are employed both directly and indirectly in the domestic fisheries sector. The post-harvest fishery activities alone employ an estimated 33,000 workers, the majority of them are women. Fish remains a staple diet for Cambodians and their per capita consumption of fish is 54 kilogrammes, considered higher among its ASEAN peers.