A Royal Group subsidiary has signed a deal with two Vietnamese firms to import fertiliser, a senior official with the company said yesterday.

Among several deals agreed to during Prime Minister Hun Sen’s trip to Vietnam this weekend, Nitrogen Chemicals and Fertilizer Cambodia Ltd, the subsidiary of Royal Group, will distribute fertiliser from Dap Vinchen Limited and the Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corporation of Vietnam.

The head of Royal Group, Kith Meng, was on the trip with Hun Sen and signed the deal.

The subsidiary’s financial manager, Chhun Kim, said the company plans to import three types of fertiliser, but declined to go into specifics about the cost and when the imports will start.

“We are not sure yet. The company will have experts in fertiliser from Vietnam to study what kind of soil needs what kind of fertiliser, and then we will decide. We cannot just immediately import,” he said.

Kim said the company is licensed to import 190,000 tonnes of chemical fertiliser per year.

Yang Saing Koma, the president of agricultural organisation CEDAC, said imported fertiliser will help farmers increase crop yields, “but they will also have to spend more”.

Koma said training farmers to deploy natural fertiliser was a better long-term solution, adding that “using natural fertiliser will help them [farmers] to get more revenue”.