Cambodia Rice News: $20 million rice mill for Oddong

$20 million rice mill for Oddong

When London-based real estate investor Sanjay Dhir heard about Cambodia from his Indian partner Manoj Varma, he took a trip here in October 2010 and stopped by the roadside to meet the operators of a portable rice mill.

He knew then that Cambodia was ready for new rice mills. After working with his partners for the last year and a half, Long Grain Co Ltd announced the deal last week for a $20 million investment in a new rice mill in the Oddong district, about 40 kilometres from Phnom Penh.

“When you have been through many crises in various countries, trends and fashion changes, you learn one thing: people have got to eat,” Dhir said. “On the remaining two and a half hour journey after talking to the owners of the portable rice mill I was trying to understand more about the country, the rice, how many mills and very quickly realised there was a huge opportunity for many, many more rice mills,” he said.

According to the same principles that he and his partner Manoj Varma use when investing in real estate developments in India through a company called Fusion Real Estate Investments of Mauritius, the key is finding good local partners to work with.

In this case, they found Sean Ngu, CEO of EMAXX Telecom, who is one of several shareholders in Long Grain Fusion, the Singapore company that owns the Cambodian company Long Grain Co Ltd. Dhir serves as the Chairman of Long Grain Fusion: the majority shareholder is his own family.

In the $20 million phase one of the project, Japanese rice milling equipment under the brand name Satake will arrive in October, following completion of the building at the end of September for a projected start of operations on January 25 next year, on Dhir’s 40th birthday.

“There’s been an awful lot to do, identifying the site, filling the site, raising it by two metres, and working with a good builder for excavation and foundations,” Dhir said.

With regard to the January opening of the plant, Dhir says the paddy can be acquired and stored prior to milling....Read more at Phnompenhpost

Source: Phnompenhpost/17July2012

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