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In 2008, three sugar companies were awarded nearly 20,000 hectares of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) in Oddar Meanchey province. The new research finds that associated land grabbing totaling more than 17,000 hectares has affected more than 2,000 families. Of these, 214 families were forcibly evicted. Meanwhile, at least 3,000 hectares of the misappropriated land has been used for logging rather than sugar plantations, according to the report, ‘Cambodia: The Bitter Taste of Sugar’, commissioned by ActionAid and Oxfam GB. The research focuses on the activities of Angkor Sugar Company, Cambodia Cane and Sugar Valley Company and Tonle Sugar Cane Company. Since 2000, the Royal Government of Cambodia has granted more than 114,000 hectares of land through 19 such sugar concessions. Many of these focus on exports under the European Union’s ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA) preferential trade scheme.
