B2B Cambodia sat down with French business consultant and podcast host, Julien Drolon, during his recent visit to Cambodia, to discuss Ajwa Plantation Capital and what opportunities lie in Mondulkiri province’s agriculture and tourism industry.
Founded by French-Cambodian entrepreneur, Adam Musa Lim, in 2014, Ajwa Plantation Capital is a plantation investment company specialised in setting up the infrastructure required for optimal production of premium agro produce in Cambodia. Drolon has worked on both the business development side, and the investment management side of the company, which he shared currently has over 30 investors from 10 different countries.
“Basically, Ajwa capital was the dream of my business partner, Mr. Lim, who tried to follow in the footsteps of his father, who is doing very well in rubber plantation and real estate,” Drolon explained. “He decided to bring a group of investors from all over the world to invest into a black pepper plantation, and later on in Mondulkiri, in coffee and durian. It's quite an ambitious project with more than 30 investors from 10 different countries, and together, combined, an investment of a few million US dollars.”
He also explained that the company chose to invest in land in Mondulkiri due to its geographical characteristics and arable land.
I've been living in Southeast Asia for more than 20 years, and in Southeast Asia, you always look for places in the highlands, for example, Baguio in the Philippines… Chiang Mai in Thailand, and in Malaysia, where I live right now, the Cameron Highlands. I would say Mondulkiri is the Cameron Highlands or the Baguio of Cambodia.
“[In Mondulkiri] we started to see a lot of development in resorts, some coffee production, so we thought we could do a plantation slash resort for eco-tourism, so that's why we jumped in. My local partner acquired a huge piece of land of 100 hectares, and we started to plant a couple of crops, until COVID happened,” Drolon added.
Decision to Sell Ajwa Plantation Capital’s Land
Drolon explained that the pandemic pushed Ajwa Plantation Capital to restrategise and restructure its business, and now the company’s investors have decided to go forward with selling the land as they pursue other opportunities elsewhere.
“Anyone who is interested in cash crops, we have a durian plantation with quite mature trees, and also macadamia nuts. We tried coffee, but it didn't really work out, but we are taking care of the land very well. I think it's also somewhere you could do eco-tourism slash a plantation, so you would have a few resorts nested within the plantation,” he said, sharing some information about the land for any potential buyers who may be interested.
He added that the land has a river stream, so access to water, as well as a few houses already built where the workers who take care of the land live. Furthermore, the land is located only about 30 kilometres from the Vietnam border, so there is potential for accessing the Vietnamese tourist market.
“I think it's ready for people who want to invest in Mondulkiri, and I would say it's maybe one of the best pieces of land I’ve seen in the region,” said Drolon.
If Ajwa Plantation Capital and Mondulkiri province hold such attractive prospects, the main question that arises is why the company’s investors would be so ready to sell and exit the market. Drolon wished to explain that the decision to sell was not made because of the land itself, but just because the company’s investors have now moved on to other endeavours.
“We are not leaving because of the quality of the land or because of Cambodia, it's just because we decided to migrate to other regions where we have bigger opportunities,” he said.
We still believe that Cambodia and its agriculture sector will be a really good investment, combined with tourism. But unfortunately, we can't be everywhere, so we have to decide to sacrifice some great projects like this one, cash out, and move on to a different type of project elsewhere.
He added that he thinks right now is the perfect time to sell and for any potential buyers to step in because there is an increased likelihood of a new airport being built in the area.
“There are talks about a new airport being built, a feasibility study was done 20 kilometres from our land… and I think once the airport is officially scheduled to be built, it's going to tremendously increase the value of our land, which has already increased 4 times over,” said Drolon.
Regarding Ajwa Plantation Capital’s next steps, he reiterated that the company is going through a restructuring, but ultimately, he isn’t certain about its future.
“We are restructuring the company in totally different sectors, but we're not sure we're going to continue with Ajwa. It's rebranded a little bit in Turkey, but that’s more at a very micro-level,” said Drolon. “The most important thing for us is to sell the land. After that, it depends on the eagerness of our investors to continue the journey with us, or to move on to something else.”
Stay tuned for our next discussion with Drolon focused on his hosting and production of the LEGACY Business Podcast based in Malaysia.