The American Soybean Association’s World Initiative for Soy in Human Health program and partners had multiple constructive discussions thanks to participation in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Cambodia Agriculture Forum and Exhibition 2025 (CAFE25) on Nov. 23-16 in Phnom Penh. FAO designed the event as a platform to accelerate investment, innovation, and partnerships. As a result of WISHH’s ongoing relationship building with FAO, the FAO Cambodia leadership organized a positive consultation between WISHH and the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development to discuss private-sector investment opportunities in Cambodian aquaculture. WISHH included the head of the Cambodian Aquaculturist Association (CAA), a trade association that WISHH launched through its USDA Food for Progress Project (CAST-Cambodia). The United Soybean Board has supported WISHH’s overall work with FAO.
WISHH used USDA Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP) funding to work with CAA on a study tour for 15 Cambodian fish farmers to the FAO event that featured approximately 400 food and agriculture exhibitors, including soy-based feed manufacturers. The farmers reported they gained knowledge about how to improve their production practices, expand their fish farms as well as meet with feed manufacturers who use soybean meal in fish feeds.
WISHH and the CAA used Illinois Soybean Association support so CAA members and WISHH’s partners could exhibit their feeds and fish products at the expo. Their participation allowed them to meet with the thousands of farmers and consumers who came to see, network and buy. Additionally, the Royal University of Cambodia Faculty of Fisheries and Aquaculture (FOFA) students showcased the fish fingerlings that they now offer to Cambodia where the government has identified feed, fingerlings and finance as their top three constraints to agriculture growth in the country where aquaculture is now 35 percent of total aquatic food production. In addition to helping fill a key gap in Cambodian aquaculture, the FOFA students report learning valuable entrepreneurial skills through the hatchery that sold about 500,000 fingerlings this year. The CAA continues to introduce their quality fingerlings to Cambodian fish farmers, such as the 16 who joined WISHH and CAA’s RAPP-funded study tour to FAO’s CAFE25.