Chea Kea, owner of the Daimond Crown casino on the border with Thailand in Pailin province, is investing in a $4 million feed processing warehouse that will also be used to store commodities and house farm animals.

The move could cut down on the cost of importing animal feed over the border into an area with a dwindling domestic supply.

Construction on the warehouse, which is expected to hold 3,000 tonnes of corn and dried cassava for processing into pig feed, will finish in the next 10 months. The location is on the eastern edge of the province, near Battambang.

“With this project, we will process and export by ourselves on a large scale. We’re building this big storage place to protect the local products that get stuck when the Thai traders do not come to buy from the farmers,” he said.

Song Detan, president of export company CT Pailin’s accounting committee, said the project may help local farming by encouraging producing and selling within the province.

He said his company buys around seven to eight thousand tonnes of corn and four to five thousand tonnes of cassava a year.

Meas Loeun, a farmer in Pailin, said that the province has lacked animal food processing companies. All feed is imported and transportation can be costly.

Loeun, however, does not expect the value of agricultural products to increase because traders will fight back by demanding lower prices.