Roast quail business yields good standard of living

 

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) -

Residents of Phnom Penh run all kinds of businesses. Some operate big clothes stores or restaurants that require large capital investments.

Others earn a good living by selling things on sidewalks. And then there's the many other people who  run mobile businesses these days.

Tola, an 18-year-old man from Kampong Cham province, sells roast quail and chicken offal from a cart, which he pushes everyday from Boeng Salang to Psar Doeumkor.

"I've run this business independently from my mother for four years," he told Cambodia Express News (CEN), an affiliate of The Cambodia Herald.

"I can sell up to 50 roast quails a day for between 400,000 riel ($100) and 500,000 riel ($125).

"My business has gone very well," he said. "Even though it takes plenty of time to roast quails and chicken parts, and energy to push the cart, it can earn a lot of income for my daily needs."

A whole quail costs 3,500 riel ($0.80) while chicken’s necks and wings cost 1,500 riel ($0.35). A skewer of quail’s gizzards and pope's noses, the fatty extremity of chicken rumps, cost only 1,000 riel ($0.25).

"I have all kinds of clients," Tola says. "My roast quail and chicken has become a good option for those  busy with work and unable to cook."

Others buy his food as appetizers. "This business helps me earn a good living even if it can’t make me rich," the provincial teenager says.