Cambodia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has signalled a policy shift on circular agriculture, arguing that the sector cannot move beyond pilot projects without stronger market demand for recovered agricultural products.

Khim Finan, Undersecretary of State and ministry spokesperson, laid out the position on September 30 at the Cambodia Circular Economy Forum 2026, held at the Sun & Moon Riverside Hotel in Phnom Penh. The three-day event, running through October 2, opened with a day dedicated to agriculture and the circular bioeconomy.

"Core to the modern agricultural community, we always talk about market first and then we go back on linkage," Finan said during a panel titled 'Circular Agriculture in ASEAN: Innovating for Sustainable Value Chains'.

The comment marks an explicit move away from what Finan described as a traditional "supply push" model of agricultural development — one that assumes material streams exist and waits for buyers to appear. Instead, he argued, Cambodia needs to anchor demand first and work backwards through the supply chain.

Profit, not planet, drives adoption

Finan was blunt about the commercial logic underpinning the government's approach. "It's not exactly a farmer's job to protect the planet," he said, noting that businesses operate primarily to make a profit. That framing sets the conditions he says circular agriculture must meet: reliable supplies of agricultural by-products, sufficient production volumes, and arrangements such as contract farming that give processors certainty over feedstock.

Financing forms the third leg of the government's support package. According to Finan, the ministry is examining mechanisms to support both producers and private companies, alongside infrastructure and other measures that help circular businesses reach viable scale.

Government support, he said, should extend beyond policy documents to the operating environment itself — infrastructure, research and development, agricultural communities and industrial clustering that reduce costs and improve logistics for businesses handling agricultural residues.

Regional operators report the same bottlenecks

Panelists from across ASEAN described bottlenecks that track closely with the Cambodian position. Nguyễn Hữu Lâm of Vietnam Food Joint Stock Company, whose work focuses on turning aquaculture waste into value, said businesses struggle to secure suitable by-products and to convince users to accept products made from them. Education, data and product trials, he said, are often necessary to build customer confidence in recovered materials.

Galih Batara Muda of Indonesia Coconut Hub pointed to the challenge of building an ecosystem linking farmers, processing capacity and end markets. He described Indonesian efforts to work with universities, government and local communities to build farmer capacity and develop models that could be replicated across regions.

Hul Hunsopheary of Evola Cambodia reported similar friction in turning food waste into a viable business — specifically around connecting different parts of the system and generating enough demand for circular products to justify investment.

Regional cooperation on the agenda

Panelists suggested ASEAN-level mechanisms could accelerate progress: sharing practical demonstration models, connecting farmers with technology providers and markets, and strengthening cooperation between governments, businesses and research institutions.

Finan closed the discussion with a formulation that will be familiar to anyone tracking circular-economy policy: Cambodia's circular-agriculture development needs a functioning ecosystem in which the market creates demand, and government and other stakeholders remove the barriers to production and investment.

The forum's first day also covered black soldier fly farming, rice-sector circularity, and biochar and wood vinegar — material streams that currently exist largely at pilot and demonstration scale in Cambodia, with no announced commercial capacity figures yet attached.

What to watch

The claims remain policy intent rather than committed capital. No financing envelope, plant capacity or tonnage target accompanied Finan's remarks. The test ahead is whether the ministry converts its demand-first framing into specific financing mechanisms, contract-farming arrangements and infrastructure commitments — and whether any of the pilot operations discussed at the forum announce scaled commercial capacity with published throughput. CCEF 2026, themed 'Circular Economy in Action: From Policy to Prosperity', continues through October 2.