Update on Run Kann

Update on Run Kann
Entrepreneur: Run Kann
Location: Pon-Nhea Leu district, Cambodia
Amount Repaid: $84.00 of $1,000.00
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=20175

This entrepreneur is funded by a Kiva loan administered by Maxima Mikroheranhvatho Co., Ltd. here in Cambodia. Run lives northwest of Phnom Penh in a village not far from the outflow river of the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia’s largest lake. This is the third loan she has taken out with Maxima. Prior to working with Maxima, Run had never borrowed money. Her loan is being paid off on schedule.

With the proceeds, Run and her husband bought a pig and, for their main business, firewood, which they’ve been selling for seven years. During the rainy season in this area, there is a period of about two months where the countryside is flooded by backflow from the Mekong River to the south. Firewood, already difficult to find during the dry season, becomes unavailable. Run and her husband resurrect their old truck and drive about 80 kilometers to the outlying districts of the neighboring province, Kampong Chhnang. There, they buy firewood from people who gather it in the countryside. They used to be able to buy wood in their own district for stockpiling and reselling in the wet season but now, not enough trees remain.

A round trip to buy wood takes about three days and it sounds like quite an adventure. They have to sometimes search to find sellers of wood. They contend with bad roads, some even impassable. A bridge on the road they normally use has been washed out. They’ve made five trips so far this season but can’t make any more for maybe a month until the bridge is repaired.

Another unavoidable hurdle of doing business in Cambodia is greasing the wheels of the omnipresent bureaucracy – the police. Transporting any goods along the national highways requires passing a number of checkpoints. Depending on the value of the goods, the police extract their own version of a tax – in this case something like US$5 a trip. From what we understand, almost no business in Cambodia escapes these levies.

The Cambodians are resourceful and looking at Run and her husband’s truck, you can see a 3-D manifestation of their ability to survive. On an old truck chassis, he has cobbled together out of old pipe, re-bar, wood, sheet steel, water tanks and whatever else he could find, a Franken-truck that’s served them for years. He said he often has to pay additional “fines” to the police because the vehicle is not licensed or incapable of conforming to vehicle regulation specifications.

They sell through their stock of wood in two months. Their main market consists of their village of about 300 families. They sell the wood in small bundles called “baat” (see photo). One baat sells for 140 Rial – about 3.5 cents in US currency. They add value to the product by first cutting the wood then, literally tying two to four small, short sticks into a bundle using a flexible vine. It is a simple operation but it’s what allows this family to survive. Currently, there is no one else in the village competing with them. They also sell some wood to re-sellers along the highway closer to Phnom Penh.

Run and her husband have four children ranging in age from four to seventeen years old. All of them live at home. One child, a nine year-old girl attends school in the commune/village. In the longer term, they hope to keep growing the business to support the family.

Posted by Darin Greyerbiehl from Pon-Nhea Leu district, Cambodia
Nov 1, 2007