Cambodia scoping interview 06

Interview 6: 36 years old, Prohok Trade, Mother’s age: 62-63 years old

Observations

This respondent was seated on a low stool in front of her stall that was selling Prahoc, Mum and Pa Ork. Her father was seated next to her, after a short while, he got up and left and let us talk to his daughter. There were three young male workers around the stall, they were getting ready to close the stall for the day. She was very friendly and direct in her responses.

Notes

“This business belonged to my mom and I help her with it. She started the business almost 30 years ago from now. First, it was not Prahok Trade. She tried various types of trade but none of them were a success. Then, she changed to Prahok. Prahok has no expiration date and it is what Cambodian people can’t live without so now we can sustain our income through this trade. Before I joined my mom, I was working for a mobile company called Mfone. I did not see my future by working with private company so I switched the job (no holiday and don’t like me being bossed around). Another reason is that my mom is getting old now, also the people who are in debt to us will need time to repay and if I don’t join the trade we will not be able to collect the debt. It has been 7 years now since I joined this. I want to share her burden. She will go to Provinces (around Tonle Sap) to buy the products (not only prohok, mum..) and stock it at our stall. While my mom is away, I will take care of all tasks at the market. I have 3 younger brothers. They are all working for the government. One works for National Audit Authority. One works for Electricity Board of Cambodia and the other one is a lawyer. My grandparents are mainland Chinese. They sold cigarettes without paying tariff by importing it from foreign countries (rot pun ba rey). I have two children (8 years old daughter and 2.5 years old son). If I am sick, my mom will take care of my children. Our family is huge. We have 15 members that having meals together (also counts workers at the stall). Also, I always turn to my family members for any advices that I need.”

“it is not only us that sell prahok. There are many people who sell the same as us. Some are a good friend but some don’t even talk to us. I think it is more like a competition than a cooperation. Although we sell the same product if they have a good relations with us, we will go to any social events that they invited us. I don’t play Tong Tin since there are a lot of cheating cases happened. The estimated number is 80% of people in the market that play Tong tin. For mooi, I have from all provinces and phnom penh. But mooi in Phnom Penh are more than mooi from provinces (4-5 mooi in each province). We also have a lot of inter-generation mooi (both province and PP). Not all of my mooi was recommended by my previous mooi. Some would come to the market and find their own trusted seller. For social events, I always go to my Mooi’ social events in Phnom Penh. It is different from those who are living in the provinces. If I am free or any of my relatives are there, we will go. Those mooi who buy a lot of kilogram, they will take credit. I don’t really want to let my mooi to take any credit for now because there are a lot of cheating case which happened to me. I could buy 2-3 flats (apartments) with that credit if they pay me back. Mooi from provinces might come to pay the credit by themselves or use Wing or Truemoney. Some people use their own car to transport the product but some will get it through taxi.”

“my husband does the trade with me. We know each other in high school and got married. It is a love marriage between us. Before, my husband sold motorbikes . Unfortunately, it did not yield a lot of profit and I need help so he decided to quit his business and help with the trade. He holds a bachelor degree. With his help, I could save money for hiring people (at the stall). All of us are originally from in PP. All of my mom’s siblings no longer earn money. Their children are taking care of them now. But before that they were moto taxi driver.”

“ I think my mom is an honest and good trader. She fights so hard for this trade. I could not call myself a trader yet. I still need to learn a lot of thing from my mom. And I hope I could be a good trader like her. She told me that be an honest trader, you will never fail.”