Plastic bags stuffed with rotting chicken from a smugglers’ boat washed ashore in Thailand have hinted at shortages inside Cambodia, as formal trade between the neighbours collapses due to the border conflict and illicit cargo flows surge instead.

While demand appears high for smuggled Thai oil, fruit, meat and consumer items like soap, the Cambodian public is maintaining a boycott of Thai businesses in a nationalist kickback that reveals the depth of the enmity now staining relations between the neighbours and erstwhile trading partners.

The two countries blame each other for reviving a dormant dispute last year over where their 800km (500-mile) border lies. Bloody clashes that started in July killed scores of soldiers and civilians on both sides, resulting in the land border being closed to goods and people.

A fragile ceasefire has just about held but the land border remains closed despite recent overtures from Cambodia to reopen it.

With both nations pinched by the global fuel crisis, Thai authorities say sea smuggling, including fuel, has spiked, prompting more naval patrols.