Photo: our table at the Kampong Thom Water Festival fair, 7 November 2026.

Late on Saturday afternoon a crowd came down the row of white tents at the Kampong Thom fair. At the front were H.E. Hun Many, Deputy Prime Minister, and H.E. Nuon Pharath, Governor of Kampong Thom. They stopped at a table covered in blue cloth. On it were yellow bags of jasmine rice and, at the far end, bottles of fresh milk from big jugs down to small ones.

The table was ours. We shared it with Moo Moo Farms, which accounts for the milk.

Our colleague behind the table handed bags across and two of the visitors took one each. A phone came out. For a few minutes the rice we normally see on pallets was being held up and looked over by our visitors.

The bag

The rice is Phka Rumduol, the fragrant variety, from our mill in Santuk district. The bag is White King Elephant, the same yellow one we pack for buyers in the United States. In the packing room it is a 50 lb sack, laid flat in rows across the floor.

Yellow 50 lb White King Elephant jasmine rice bags laid in rows on the packing room floor at the BRM Agro mill

We are used to watching this rice leave by the container. It was good to see it handed across a table for once.

The boat

Earlier that day the longboats had been out on the Stung Sen, the brown river that runs through the provincial town. There were flags along the far bank and people on the steps.

Two longboats with crews in red on the Stung Sen river in Kampong Thom, flags along the far bank, 7 November 2026

One of the boats was Srey Sros Stung Sen. It has a red hull with flowers painted down the side and a crew of twenty-two. BRM Agro and Moo Moo Farms were among its sponsors this year.

Red hull of the longboat Srey Sros Stung Sen with painted flowers and its name plate in Khmer

We paid for part of the boat. The rowing was left to people who know how.

A provincial year

The Water Festival belonged to the provinces this year. The national races in Phnom Penh were called off for the second year running, and provincial governors were left to hold celebrations within their means.

Kampong Thom raced on 7 and 8 November and followed the afternoon races with concerts and a fair of local products. Pursat raced the same weekend. Siem Reap and Kampot hold theirs later in the month.

By Monday the rice was tonnes and shipping dates again. On Saturday evening it was a bag in somebody's hands, with milk at the other end of the table.