Encouraging local business
Local brand Camgoldia was created by Wang Ming-feng, a graduate of the Department of Industrial Design, Tunghai University. Born in 1981, Wang cares deeply for society and supports the development of homegrown businesses. He was introduced to Across the Ocean by friends, and is one of the most recent recruits to the café. Although a latecomer, he had a background of concern for society long before joining.
The turning point of Wang’s life came on a journey to Cambodia in 2004. Wang regularly traveled abroad during his years at university, and after completing military service, he arranged a trip to Cambodia to visit his uncle who had been running a business there since the 1990s, before starting to look for a job in Taiwan. He was just one of the regular tourists who stayed in local hotels and visited the area’s attractions.
One day, he sent his clothes to the laundry but forgot to remove US$100 from one of the pockets. He never expected to see the money again, but to his surprise the laundrywoman returned the money in full, despite the fact that most people were quite poor, with an average monthly income in Cambodia of around US$70.
The event had a profound effect on Wang, witnessing as he had the simplicity and pureness of heart of the Cambodian people. Before he had begun this journey, Wang considered himself a simple traveler, but by the time he was on his way home, he had changed. He was now an “actor,” a person with goals and things to do. He wanted to build an elementary school in a village near Phnom Penh to improve the local children’s level of education, and turn their fates around.
It was a dream that Wang intended to achieve, but he didn’t know how to begin. During his journey in Cambodia, he had often seen people selling palm sugar on the street, so he decided to apply his design skills to transform the plain palm sugar into a refined product to raise money for the school.
Palm trees are everywhere in Cambodia, and they have a wide range of uses. The trunk and leaves are often used for building materials, and palm sugar can be extracted from the sap. Wang saw palm trees as gold for Cambodia, so he established a company which he christened Camgoldia—a combination of Cambodia and gold—to sell palm-related products.
Wang sought the cooperation of farmers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh with the assistance of his uncle. He also introduced the French organic certification system in order to improve the quality of the product. When farmers produced palm sugar that met the certification standard, he would guarantee them a better price than that on the local market.
Recognizing the many uses of palm trees, Wang contracted Cambodian farmers to produce palm sugar, which is extracted from palm tree sap and processed into a saleable product. He created the brand Camgoldia to market the result.