Manila honours Confirel, a Cambodian model of inclusive business

Selected as Cambodia's sole representative, Confirel received the ASEAN Inclusive Business Award in Manila on 22 September 2026. The award recognises a model that brings rural families into value creation, from the sugar palm to cacao.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) presented its 2026 Inclusive Business Awards under the large tent of the Likhang Filipino exhibition on Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City. Organised by the Philippines, which chairs ASEAN this year, the ceremony was held on the sidelines of the Ninth ASEAN Inclusive Business Forum, devoted to building the skills and institutions that support this business model. Confirel was represented by Sakett Seila, assistant to Dr Hay Ly Eang.

One winner per country

The award is not easily won. Each of the eleven member states first runs its own selection and puts forward just one company at regional level. Candidates must be private, for-profit companies, majority-owned by ASEAN nationals, commercially viable and compliant with labour and environmental law. Above all, they must integrate the poorest communities, known as the “base of the pyramid”, into their core business, whether as suppliers, employees, distributors or customers.

Alongside Confirel, the class of 2026 includes Singapore's Foreword Coffee, where nearly seven in ten employees live with a disability or a mental health condition; Indonesia's Agradaya, which sources from more than 500 farmers, over three-quarters of them women; and the Philippine cooperative Kawayan Collective, which specialises in construction bamboo.

130 families and a million trees

The jury singled out Confirel's work in Kampong Speu province. There, the company works with 130 palm-sugar producing families, combining training and traceability with local processing that opens access to better-paying markets.

The same long-term approach is now being applied to Cambodian cacao through the One Million Cocoa Trees Programme. Launched in the north-eastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kratie and Stung Treng, the initiative aims to plant one million trees by 2029 and to build a complete bean-to-bar value chain. Confirel provides growers with technical support and commits to buying their harvest at market price. Rural families gain a second, more lasting source of income.

True to the vision of 2001

“This award reflects the vision Dr Hay Ly Eang had when he founded Confirel in 2001: to take Cambodia's agricultural resources and traditional knowledge further through science, quality and local processing,” said Sakett Seila.

It is a collective success, he added: “This award belongs as much to the farmers and the team as to the company. It also rewards an idea: that more value can be created from Cambodian agriculture right here, in Cambodia.”