This site uses only functional cookies — no tracking, no advertising. How it works
Don't remember me
|
| 1863–1953 |  French protectorate of Cambodia: the treaty of 11 August 1863, part of French Indochina from 17 October 1887, a French associated state from 8 November 1949 |
| 9 Nov 1953 | independence on 9 November 1953 as the Kingdom of Cambodia (World Statesmen); France recognised it on 20 December 1954; the state was a republic and then a people's republic between 1970 and 1993, and a kingdom again after the constitution of 24 September 1993 |
| 1953–1970 |  Kingdom of Cambodia (Royaume du Cambodge), independent from 9 November 1953; the flag of 1948, blue-red-blue with a white Angkor Wat |
| 1970–1975 |  Khmer Republic, proclaimed on 9 October 1970; a blue flag with a red canton bearing Angkor Wat and three white stars |
| 1975–1979 |  Democratic Kampuchea, counted from 17 April 1975; the name and the red flag with a yellow three-towered Angkor Wat date from 5 January 1976 |
| 1979–1989 |  People's Republic of Kampuchea, from 7 January 1979; a red flag with a yellow five-towered Angkor Wat |
| 1989–1993 |  State of Cambodia, from 1 May 1989; the flag red over blue with a yellow five-towered Angkor Wat, in use also under the UN Transitional Authority of 1992-1993 |
| 1993– | Kingdom of Cambodia, the monarchy restored with the constitution of 24 September 1993; the flag of 1948 was readopted |
The old drink of Cambodia was rice wine, shared from a jar through bamboo straws. Beer came with the French, who ruled the country as a protectorate from 1863. In September 1927 the Saigon company Brasseries et Glacières de l'Indochine (BGI) was formed to take over breweries and ice works in Cholon, Saigon, Phnom Penh, Haiphong and Tourane, and in 1939 the economist Pierre Robequain listed a brewery at Phnom Penh among those built first for European customers and working mostly with imported materials. In 1954-58 BGI still sent 203,073 hl of beer from its Vietnamese brewery to Cambodia, while its Phnom Penh works made soft drinks.
After independence in 1953 the government commissioned a brewery of its own at Sihanoukville, chosen for its clear spring water. A French contractor built it with technical help from France, and the architect Vann Molyvann designed the building; Prince Norodom Sihanouk opened it in 1965. Bayon was its first brand, and Angkor Beer, which one source dates to 1963, was the other. The brewery stopped working in 1975. In 1991 Cambrew Ltd, a Malaysian-owned company, took over the site; after nine months of rebuilding it brewed again in 1992, the year it also took the PepsiCo licence, and Bayon came back in 1995. It is often said that the project was already planned in the 1920s, under the French, but no source we found confirms it.
Foreign brewers followed. The Vattanac Group's Progress Import-Export, an importer of beer since 1988, formed Cambodia Brewery Ltd in 1994 with Asia Pacific Breweries, later Heineken's, for Tiger, Anchor and ABC Stout; Heineken owned it alone from 2014 and on 10 March 2017 opened a second brewery near Phnom Penh (3 million hl, USD 100 million), where Heineken itself is brewed. Carlsberg bought 50% of Cambrew in 2005, 75% in August 2018 and the rest on 1 November 2019. The Sihanoukville plant has a design capacity of 12 million hl and brews Angkor Premium, Angkor Extra Stout, Klang and Black Panther, with Carlsberg, Tuborg, Guinness and Asahi under licence.
Local capital built the next breweries. Chip Mong Group bought 9 ha at Cheung Ek in Phnom Penh in 2009, built the Khmer Brewery there with Ziemann Holvrieka from January 2010 and launched Cambodia Beer in 2010; the brewery was formally opened in 2012, grew in 2013 and in 2017 (USD 120 million), when it became Khmer Beverages. Kingdom Breweries, founded in 2009 in a former Nestlé factory on the Tonle Sap, launched Clouded Leopard Pilsener in September 2010 and also brews for regional craft brands. Ganzberg Brewery in Phnom Penh, run by the German brewmaster Bernd Kirsch from late 2010, followed. Craft brewers and brewpubs began to open from about 2017, with craft beer bars in Phnom Penh, Kampot and Siem Reap.
Two large plants opened in 2021. Vattanac Brewery in Phnom Penh (USD 140 million, approved on 10 June 2020, 6.5 million hl) held its first brewing ceremony on 21 October 2021. Hanuman Beverages, of the Khieu family, started the first 1 million hl stage of its USD 160 million brewery in Kandal province in October 2021, after a brewpub in Phnom Penh in 2019. By June 2020 the country counted ten industrial brewing companies. On 2 July 2026 Hanuman announced its launch in the United States, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
