Update on Phy Chheun

Update on Phy Chheun
Entrepreneur: Phy Chheun
Location: Kean Svay district, Cambodia
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=14007

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Phy and her family live in a fertile farming area not far from the Tonle Bassac (river), a tributary of the Mekong, south of Phnom Penh. This is the third loan she has taken out with Maxima. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.

Phy (age 57) and her family, derive their primary income from growing jasmine and longan as well as buying jasmine from other growers in her village then re-selling it at one of the large markets in Phnom Penh. Jasmine is flower popularly used in Cambodia in traditional Buddhist ceremonies as well as a flavoring for tea. Longan is a small, round fruit similar to lychee.

We met beneath Phy’s house surrounded by the unfinished masonry walls going up around the first story. Phy is also a widow but she doesn’t appear to lack for family company. We were also surrounded by five of her daughters and one son-in-law (see photo - Phy is fifth from left in the polka dot pants). One of the daughters works with her as a middleperson buying and selling the jasmine.

Harvesting and selling jasmine flowers is a business unfamiliar to me. The tiny blossoms, not much bigger than a common housefly, must be collected one-by-one and they are sold by the kilogram. A kilo is more than enough to fill the volume of a basketball so one needs to spend a lot of time picking. She and her daughter buy them in the village for between (US) $2.50-$5.00. The price variation has to do with the season. They sell at one of the large markets in Phnom Penh with a markup of about 50% . In a good week, they sell about ten kilos.

Her primary expenses are gasoline for their water pump which uses about two liters a week. Gas costs $0.83 a liter in Cambodia. She also spends a lot of money on fertilizer and fungicide. As with agriculture everywhere, cyclicality is a problem. When crop yields are high, as they are currently at the end of the rainy season, they are usually high for everyone in a region so prices paid for the crops go down. Phy’s daughters complained that they could get much more per kilo if they had the same product in one month. Such is doing business with Mother Nature as a partner.

Her main goal is to finish her house. Currently, seven people live there. Apart from that, she wants to continue to build her business so she has something to pass along to her daughters.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Kean Svay district, Cambodia
Nov 19, 2007