WISHH Perspectives

BBC News Features WISHH Partners in Cambodia

Six U.S. soybean farmers pose with a Cambodian fish processor in front of a solar dryer dome that dries fish.
ASA, WISHH and USB farmer leaders meet Yorn Samnang, the owner of fish drying and distribution enterprise Samnang Sothea, during a June 2022 WISHH trade team to Cambodia. The BBC has now featured Samnang’s solar dryer dome that produces improved quality fish as well as Mary Lep, founder of the UNICA food company. Both Samnang and Lep are partners in WISHH’s USDA Food for Progress project. Photo credit: Joseph Murphy, United Soybean Board.

BBC News Global News Podcast has highlighted partners of the American Soybean Association’s WISHH program in a report on how sustainable technology improves the lives of Cambodians. The series, Female Founders: Green Tech in the Blue Economy, discusses the solar domes for drying fish, which were installed as part of WISHH’s USDA Food for Progress CAST-Cambodia Project.

WISHH introduced the dome to the interviewee as a way to boost food safety of Cambodian fish as well as it reduces food spoilage and waste linked to greenhouse gases. The domes also allow for 24-hour drying of fish instead of drying them outside in the sun where they attract birds and insects. BBC highlights two WISHH partners, beginning with Yorn Samnang, the owner of fish drying and distribution enterprise Samnang Sothea. Samnang received a loan through CAST to purchase the fish solar drying dome and has paid of the loan as well as grew his business supplying high-quality fish. He sells to another WISHH partner featured in the podcast series, Mary Lep. She is the managing director of Unica food company in Cambodia as well as a board member of the Cambodian Aquaculturist Association that CAST has helped launch.

WISHH’s CAST Project accelerates production of high-demand fish species for the Cambodian market and develop a lasting aquaculture industry that recognizes the value of U.S. soy protein in feed.

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