Teamwork is the key

Mr.Yon Sovann – CEO of Bayon Cereal

Mr.Yon Sovann who is the CEO of Bayon Cereal co., ltd was interviewed by Phnom Penh Post which is the biggest news in Cambodia. He gave a speech about the key to success in his business. Below are the brief description about what he told them.

Tell us about your company, Bayon Cereal?
Bayon Cereal started in 2012 as a rice exporter. We export to distribution partners in EU countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and poland. Currently we export in small numbers because we have just started. in the first three months of 2014, Bayon Cereal has exported around 200 tonnes of milled rice. i will expand the volume once i gain more trust from buyers and rice millers.

What did you do before venturing into rice?
I was in charge of customs clearance from 1997 for a Taiwanese company who took orders and exported agricultural products between countries. So i gained all the experience from there.

I came to be involved in rice exporting because one day a friend (buyer) told me they wanted to buy Cambodian rice. i told them, “Yes, Cambodia has a lot of rice”. Then things started.

I asked them to send me their rice specification and immediately con-needed to produce rice for export.

Why are you standing as candidate for the president position for CRF?
We still need more human resources to improve the sector and i feel the urge to help. We lack someone who can find new markets and the industry is not working as a team yet. When it comes to big orders from buyers, no one dares to take the order because there is no one to oversee its progress or collect the rice needed to fill the order. For example, recently, Vietnam won the Philippines’s rice auction, which awarded Vietnam a contract to sell white long grain rice for more than $400 per tonne. Cambodia can easily match that, but we did not join the auction because we didn’t have a team in place to ensure that the orders will be delivered on time. as a result we fail to capture big markets.

You can find more information about Mr. Yon Sovann on this link. Interview