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Many countries in Southeast Asia have recently encountered high temperatures. In Cambodia, a heat wave has taken a toll on crop yields. The production of Kampot pepper, a local specialty, has decreased significantly.
Chim is a farmer in Kampot province in southern Cambodia who grows the famous Kampot pepper for a living. Recently, due to high temperatures and drought, his family's pepper trees have withered and even died in large areas.
Kampot pepper is spicy and fragrant, and was registered as a geographical indication product in Cambodia in 2010. But extreme heat has destroyed large swaths of pepper trees, resulting in a significant drop in yields, with some farms nearly cutting off. Local farmers have suffered huge economic losses.
Nguyen Aung, farmer, Kampot province, Cambodia: Last year, this pepper tree allowed us to harvest 1.2 kilograms of dried pepper, but this year the number has dropped to almost zero.
According to local media reports, since last year, multiple rounds of extreme weather have affected Cambodia. Torrential rains led to widespread destruction of pepper trees in the south, followed by a prolonged drought. At the end of April this year, there was a high temperature of 43 degrees Celsius. In 2023, about 120 tonnes of Kampot pepper were harvested in Cambodia's Kampot region, but this number is expected to be halved this year due to extreme weather, according to the Cambodian Kampot Pepper Promotion Association.
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Editor: Zhang Jingye