CPP senator Mong Reththy said yesterday he planned to invest $15 million rubber on 5,000 hectares over the next five years in Preah Sihanouk province’s Steung Hav district, adding that his venture would be the first rubber plantation along Cambodia’s beach.

Mr Reththy, president of Mong Reththy Group, active in different sectors such as construction, agri-business and shipping, said he would begin with planting about 1,000 hectares of rubber this year in Steung Hav district.

He said that I have plan to plant rubber trees in 1,000 hectares of land per year and spend five years to plant 5 hectares…. The plantation started in March already.

Mr Reththy said he had already received 3,000 hectares in rubber plantation concessions from the government, while he had acquired 2,000 hectares in the area in steung Hav district from local villagers.

In many other countries in Asia, rubber is traditionally cultivated on plateaus or hills and most rubber in Cambodia is currently grown in eastern provinces. Mr Reththy said however, he believed he could successful grow rubber along the beach.

‘‘I want to change the sea area to become a place for rubber plantation,’’ he said, adding people were wrong in thinking rubber trees along the beach would give lower latex yields.

‘‘Based on experts from Vietnam and Malysia, it would take four to five years to grow rubber on the beach {and} it would take five to six years to harvest rubber if we grow far from the sea,’’ he said, adding the price of his investment would be $3,000 per hectare.

Mr Reththy also said prices of the rubber were resuming to rise and the price of a ton of rubber now stood at $3,000.

Ly Phalla, director-general of the rubber department at the Agriculture Ministry, said it would be easy for Mr Reththy to grow rubber along the beach.

He said that there is no challenging problem when planting rubber trees along the beach. It would produce good-quality rubber.

Mr Phalla said demand for rubber was still high due to China’s growing needs. ‘‘We can {now} produce 45,000 tons per year… China needs 1 million tons of rubber annually.’’

Preah Sihanouk province deputy governor Chev Kimheng and Steung Hav district Ban Sarum said that they did not know of Mr Reththy’s plans, but Mr Kimheng added, ‘‘If such a plan would happen, it would make jobs for the people here.

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