Site Visit: La Plantation (15.05.2026)
La Plantation
On 15 May 2026, students from Automation & Supply Chain Systems Engineering visited La Plantation, a Kampot pepper farm in Kampot province. During the site visit our students had the opportunity to learn about the pepper production process — from farming and harvesting to processing, packaging and the final product — connecting classroom learning with a real-world business operation.
A pepper farm that runs its own supply chain
La Plantation is a pepper farm and processing operation in Kampot province, the growing area that gives Kampot pepper its name and its protected geographical indication. The farm grows pepper on trellised vines under shade netting, harvests and sorts by hand, then processes, grades and packs on the same site before the product leaves for retail and export customers.
For an SCA audience that is the point of interest: one host that owns every stage of the chain. Nothing is outsourced far enough away to be invisible, so the whole flow — field, drying yard, grading line, packing room, finished carton — can be walked in a single morning. Students could see, in one place, the handovers that are usually drawn as boxes on a slide.
Four things the visit surfaced
From the field to the packing room
The group walked the plantation first, following the crop in the order it moves: the trellised vines and the picking work, then the drying and sorting area, then the processing and packing building, which the students entered in hair covers and masks. The visit closed with a briefing and tasting session, where the different pepper grades were compared side by side and the host answered questions on customers, pricing and export.
What the students took away
The supply chain from farm to fork, seen end to end. Farming, harvesting, processing, packaging and the finished product are one continuous flow rather than five separate topics. Walking it in sequence makes the handovers — and the losses at each one — concrete.
Practical knowledge from a real business operation. A working farm has to meet food-safety rules, hold quality steady across seasons and still sell at a price the market accepts. Seeing those constraints in operation is what turns a lecture example into something usable.
Stronger communication between seniors and juniors. A full day away from campus put year groups together on the same task. The professional network our students will rely on later starts with the people standing next to them on a site visit.
On behalf of SCA, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to La Plantation for warmly welcoming our students and sharing valuable insight on real-world production and business operation.
At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Host | La Plantation — Kampot Pepper |
| Date | 15 May 2026 |
| Location | Kampot province, Cambodia |
| Sector | Agriculture & food processing — pepper growing, processing and packaging |
| Product | Kampot pepper — black, red, white and green grades |
| Process observed | Farming, harvesting, processing, packaging and the final product |
| On-site requirements | Visitor pass, hair cover and face mask inside the processing area |
| Visiting party | Students of Automation & Supply Chain Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, RUPP |