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Cambodia Slowly Reweaves Its Silk Industry

A Cambodian woman dries silk thread at a weaving center outside Phnom Penh. (Photo: Chor Sokunthea/Reuters)

September 22, 2010
By SIMON MARKS
The New York Times


PHNOM PENH — Far from the glamour at fashion weeks in America and Europe, Cambodia’s silk industry is struggling to regain the foothold it lost during years of political and civil unrest.

The government recently named silk as one of eight priority export items to be developed by the Ministry of Commerce. And experts agree that the quality of the country’s handmade gold-colored silk is far superior to the mass-produced white silk turned out by China, Vietnam and Thailand.

But Cambodia is producing just five tons of silk a year, even though demand is estimated to be about 400 tons.

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