Dozens of families in Cambodia’s Battambang province have developed a thriving side business: selling bags of homemade banana chips to foreign and Cambodian tourists.
Wives and children in Battambang’s Kdol Daun Teav commune earn extra money by slicing up bananas, laying them out to dry on bamboo skewers and then selling them as snacks to people who travel to the area to visit Wat Ek Phnom, an Angkor-era temple.
Making the banana chips requires patience, according to Nuon Chamnan. It takes a long time to peel bananas, and some days she has to peel and slice bananas until midnight to meet orders.
“Sometimes there are so many foreign visitors and then there are no leftovers for other customers,” she said.
A journey to Wat Ek Phnom is a popular day trip for people staying in Battambang town, which is about 9 km (5 miles) away from Kdol Daun Teav, where residents grow rice and gather fish from the Sankae River.
Over the last few years, word has gotten around that tourists can see the traditional livelihood of Cambodian villagers while also buying a unique snack.
Nuon Chamnan said she slices about 50 bananas a day, and can make about 50,000 riels (US$12.50) in sales. The business doesn’t require much of an upfront investment – just a lot of work, she said.
“It’s not like we do it with machines,” said another banana seller, Khun Srey Lek.
“We use our hands to do it normally, so it’s not tiring,” she said. “We just do it from morning to night, so we do it lightly, like a house chore.”
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed.