When Sanjay visited Sean in his native Cambodia more than a decade ago, what started out as a holiday turned into a vision to make a difference.

With Sanjay’s background in manufacturing and Sean’s passion for his Cambodian’s heritage, coupled with his business acumen, the two friends realised there was an opportunity to innovate one of the country’s key industries – rice cultivation.

Rice is Cambodia’s primary food crop. The tropical plant flourishes in the hot and humid climate and much of the land in Cambodia is dedicated to its growth. In fact, 70 per cent of the population is dependent on rice farming and each year they produce more than 10 million tonnes of rice yet only 1 million is processed in Cambodia. Sanjay and Sean realised that to make the industry more sustainable, more ethical and to future-proof the farming of rice for generations to come they needed to inject a new dimension to the cultivation of grain in Cambodia. In short, they needed to build a mill at its provenance. And so, in 2011, Long Grain Co. Ltd. was born.