Firms apply for quality-product label
Firms apply for quality-product label
Ly Ly Food Industry Co Ltd (Lyly Food) and Leang Leng Fish Sauce Enterprise became the first companies to apply for the newly-issued “Cambodian Quality Products” label at the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and innovation.
This comes after the ministry on February 8 called for factories, enterprises and cottage industries to apply for the label that recognises the quality and safety of their goods.
The ministry noted that it will process the applications at its one-window service office located at its headquarters on the southwest corner of the Norodom Boulevard intersection with Street 136 in Daun Penh district’s Phsar Thmei III commune.
The new label also serves to promote domestic products by improving quality and safety consistent with nationally recognised standards, penetrate the supermarket arena and instilling confidence in intermediary distribution partners and consumers, it said.
Ream Chanvanna, deputy director-general of the ministry’s General Department of Small and Medium Enterprises and Handicrafts, said Lyly Food applied for the label on four of its items and Leang Leng put in for six.
“Both companies are in the process and this’ll call for a meeting of the members of the Secretariat of the Commission for the Certification of Cambodian Quality Products to discuss, evaluate and give the first approval,” he said, adding that the ministry would look over the secretariat’s review and make the final decision.
Once given the nod from the ministry, the secretariat will hold a ceremony to award the labels to the businesses, Chanvanna said.
Lyly Food CEO Keo Mom told The Post that her company is very confident that the ministry will rule in their favour, asserting that Lyly Food complies with hygiene standards as required by law.
She said: “Receiving a ‘Cambodian Quality Products’ label will provide customers with more confidence in using our products and quell concerns over health risks.”
Srean Pich, a quality-control and food-safety inspector at Leang Leng, said his company leads the Kingdom in the production of fish sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, chilli sauce, hoisin sauce and oyster sauce, which have a strong market and are made consistent with legal hygiene standards.
He said: “I’ve picked up on the fact that Cambodian products are currently up to standards. That being the case, getting a ‘Cambodian Quality Products’ label will help gear up our wares to capture competitive opportunities on the international market,” he said.
Federation of Associations for Small and Medium Enterprises of Cambodia (FASMEC) president Te Taingpor welcomed the two firms’ applications and vowed to call on members of his association to request the label.
He said: “Other enterprises should hurry up and apply for product certification as soon as they need it.”
The department’s director-general Hort Pheng said early in November that there were 52,154 formally registered small and medium-sized enterprises as of December 31, 2019, which contributed $2.6 billion to economic output that year.
But Covid-19 forced 13,690 of them to close or suspend their operations. Most were in the cigarette, food or beverage business, he said.
