Khmer Brewery, the maker of Cambodia Beer,  plans to begin sales to France, the company’s third export market, this month, having tasted success in Japan and Malaysia.

It is one of six breweries in the Kingdom, but the only one whose investor base is local.

With a capital investment of $60 million, Khmer Brewery began selling to the domestic market in November, 2011.

Sok Chantha, its public rel-ations manager, told the Post the company was working with a distributor in France and had spent six months doing market research.

“We spent a very long time studying the market to gauge the potential demand,” Chantha said.

“I hope we will be successful in that market.

“Our beer’s taste is not that different compared to the other beers on sale there, because we import our raw materials from Europe.

“Secondly, we have high expectations of the market because a lot of Cambodian people live in France.

“We plan to export two containers for testing after Khmer New Year.”

Meng Saktheara, director-general of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, told the Post previously the quality of Cambodia beer made it competitive with others on the export market.

“When we can export to foreign markets, it proves our quality is recognised internat-ionally,” Saktheara said.

In 2011, food and beverages contributed $1 billion, 40 per cent of which came from the brewing industry, to Cambodia’s economy.