Octave Vandelet

One of the first French planters, breeders and merchants in Cambodia, Octave Vandelet (28 June 1848, Chaumont-en-Vexin, Frances — 30 Sept. 1912, Phnom Penh) started to reside and work in Cochinchina and Cambodia as early as 1873.

A close confidant of Kings Norodom and Sisowath, Vandelet served as delegate for Cambodia to the Conseil Supérieur des Colonies and first president of the Mixed Council for Agriculture and Commerce in Phnom Penh.

With associate Félix-Gaspard Faraut, Vandelet imported 26 Ploermel cows and Craon pigs to start a breeding and dairy farm that numbered more than 1,000 heads. He grew cotton, corn, coffee, sugarcane and rice on some 650 ha of land. After an attempt to develop vineyards in Southern Vietnam (Cape St. Jacques), he was also the last farmer to grow opium in Cambodia — his firm Vandelet, Dussutour had obtained the opium concession for Cambodia in 1881 thanks to then Prime minister Chhun. 

According to researcher Gregor Muller, Vandelet, ​“a restless entrepreneur and a vocal lobbyist for merchants interests”, had offered King Norodom an annual revenue of 11,000 silver bars in order to get the opium concession. [Gregor Muller, Colonial Cambodia’s ​‘Bad Frenchmen’: The Rise of French Rule and the Life of Thomas Caraman (1840−1887), Oxon/​New York, Routledge, 2006]. When the French colonial administration took control over the opium market in 1884, Vandelet and Faraut aimed at the spirit and betting game concessions. In 1888, they were again countered by the French governorate, the latter permanently banning the 36-beasts game from the streets of Cambodia. 

Photo: Vandelet’s house in Phnom Penh on the riverbank (photo J. Gervais-Courtellemont)