Kampot

Kampot (កំពត) is a coastal province of Cambodia, known for its pepper. The 2019 census placed it among the country's four coastal provinces, with Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk and Kep. It shares its name with the town of Kampot, whose streets and riverbanks keep many buildings from the French colonial period.

Shophouses on Old Market Street in the town of Kampot, 2016. Photo: Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0

Place details
Khmer name	កំពត
Place type	Province
Country	Cambodia
Area	4,873 km²
Subjects	Land, Place & Environment

Name

No document settles where the name comes from, and several stories are told. One links it to an old village on the Kampot stream, which flows down from the Elephant Mountains (ភ្នំដំរី). Another tells of a wealthy and respected woman named Pot who lived there. Some learned people, citing the provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts, give two more. In one, villagers named an inscribed stone slab found in an abandoned hut behind the village "Kampot" and worshipped it. In the other, a large stone shaped like a krapot fish was found in thick scrub south of the Kampot lake, and krapot became Kampot over time.

Kampot town

Sabay News, citing papers of a Khmer customs and traditions group, writes that the place where the town grew was once a shore of small shrubs, where traders moored their boats and junks. Chinese, Vietnamese, Cham and Khmer traders later built huts along the Kampong Bay stream to do business. Stalls then sold rice to traveling merchants and boat traders, and travelers called the spot Phsar Kampot or Phsar Kampong Bay, "the rice landing market", using both names. The town's layout and much of its building date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, under French rule.

Pepper

Kampot pepper (ម្រេចកំពត) is grown only in Kampot and Kep provinces. In 2016 it became Cambodia's first product with Protected Geographical Indication status. The protected area covers five districts of Kampot (Kampong Trach, Dang Tong, Teuk Chhou, Chhouk and Kampot town) and two in Kep. A guide at a pepper farm in Teuk Chhou district credits the sea air with enriching its taste and the fertile mountain land with helping the plants grow. The plants cannot be harvested until their fourth year, but then yield for about twenty years.

Pepper has been grown in the region since at least the 13th century. Under French rule it was exported to Europe. Production fell during the Khmer Rouge years, when farms were collectivized and many pepper farms were destroyed, and it revived in the 2000s.

Salt

Kampot is Cambodia's main salt producer. In 2024 the country harvested 130,000 tonnes of salt, 100,000 of them in Kampot and the rest in Kep. Kampot has 3,489 hectares (8,621 acres) of salt fields. In the 2023 to 2024 season they were prepared from October and harvested from January to May. The Ministry of Commerce recognized Kampot-Kep salt as a Geographical Indication in 2023. Producers say salt brought in from Thailand, Vietnam and India makes the local harvest hard to sell.

Fruit, caves and coast

A giant statue of a durian (ធុរេន) on the road from Phnom Penh stands as one of the province's emblems. Durian and coconut are its main crops, and it also grows mango, rambutan and mangosteen. Several limestone caves near Kampot town date back before the Angkor period, and brick temples were built inside some of them. Among the most visited are the caves of Phnom Chhngok, Sla Ta Aun and Sorsear. The coast is lined with mangroves and coconut palms. Bokor National Park is also among the province's attractions.

Population

Kampot covers 4,873 square kilometers (1,881 square miles). The 2019 census counted 592,845 people, up from 585,850 in 2008, or 122 people per square kilometer.

References