Prahok Poised to Tempt the Palates of Europe
- By Alan Kirk
- December 4, 2023 11:50 AM
PHNOM PENH – Europe, the home of dozens of culinary styles, is about to experience a new food delicacy… prahok.
The unique Khmer fermented fish has been developed in powdered form for international markets by Cambodian food company Confirel, which holds patents for the process.
“We have already brought it to the EU market for testing and we have had very good feedback from the consumers,” says deputy managing director Hym Piseth.
“Confirel is currently working with CAPFish to implement food safety systems to harmonise with EU requirements.”
“It’s not only for Cambodians living in the EU but also European people can consume it because we developed different flavours adapted to the needs of customers.
“People in the EU can have very high quality prahok in terms of protein, vitamins and things like that.”
Piseth agreed that prahok is not well known in Europe and the company must convince shoppers to buy it.
But he said, “When you come back to the beginning of Confirel, people in the EU market did not know what palm sugar was.
“Now people in the EU know what organic palm sugar is and know our products very well.
“Just as Kampot pepper is one of the top products of Cambodia we try very hard to lobby and promote out products to the European market.
“We expect the same thing for prahok and for the European market to accept its quality.
“We work with people in the community to produce very good quality prahok in the same way as we do for palm sugar and Kampot pepper.
“Then we buy it from them and process it in our factory, We think there is a big market internationally for prahok. It has a good smell for European people.”
The company has produced the prahok in five flavours with consumers only needing to add water. It has also come up with recipes for foreigners to combine prahok with popular foods such as pizzas and omelettes.
