Amru Rice
Amru Rice is the biggest organic rice exporter of Cambodia, with a market share of 90 per cent. Founded in 2011 with an initial investment of about half a million dollars, the company has now an annual revenue of about $45 million. About $25 million of the revenue comes from its Inclusive Business line of directly working with farmers in organic rice (up from $5 million in 2016).
In its IB line, the company works directly with about 25,000 farmers, up from 10,000 in 2016, and projects to involve 50,000 farmers by 2023. About 30 per cent of the smallholders working with Amru rice come from poor households
and 65 per cent from low-income households. Farmers working with Amru Rice can earn up to $10 a day. The company can pay 20-30 per cent more than the going market rate because of its high productivity and external demand at good prices for high-quality, organic products.
The company has established and is coaching farmer cooperatives. It established 6 senior, 6 junior and 400 local trainers in the field to organize the farmers, and has an IB adviser in the head office to constantly improve the
business model. The company also invests highly in sustainability, follows high environmental and social safeguard standards.
Amru rice provides seeds, fertilizers, market research, invests in climate resilience, focuses on organic rice, facilitates cheaper credit for its farmers, and has established a decentralized production recording and monitoring system (blockchain). It increases productivity of the farmers through better inputs, farming technology and processes, and it guarantees the sale of farm produces at high prices. The company also helps reduce and shares the risk of the farmers. For example, it provides financial mentorship and it guarantees the repayment of the farmers’ loans. As it was guaranteeing the repayment, Amru rice has also been able to negotiate, on behalf of its farmers, lower interest rates from the financial institutions. In result, farmers with Amru rice pay typically interest rates of 1.2% compared to 1.8% in the market, and they do not need to provide a collateral.