Cambodia nets $4.4 billion from agricultural exports

A healthy outlook for exports to the world’s leading economy will keep the Sihanoukville port busy in 2021. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Cambodia exported $4.4 billion worth of agricultural products to foreign markets in the first eleven months this year.

This ensured that agricultural sector remained one of the main movers of the Cambodian economy during the pandemic.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries stated that from January to November, some 7.1 million tonnes worth of agricultural products were shipped to 68 foreign markets in the world.

This is an 87.5 percent increase when compared to the same period last year.

Of these, 532,179 tons of milled rice were exported during the period, a year-on-year decrease of 11.46 percent. It earned $454 million as of November this year.

Paddy rice totaling 3.1 tons were exported, an increase of 75 percent compared to the same period last year. Paddy rice exports netted $546 million.

The non-agricultural products exported were valued at $2.990 billion from 4.6 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 49.47 percent.

The ministry stated that rubber export as of October this year, earned $443 million.

Veng Sakhon lauded the positive progress of agricultural development in the light of Covid-19 pandemic.

In a meeting with newly-appointed Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Huy Tang on Tuesday, Sokhon asked Vietnam to increase imports of agricultural products from Cambodia.

“I would like to thank the Vietnamese government and private companies for their investment in Cambodia’s agricultural sector and for them being able to export large quantities of agricultural products to Vietnam, especially rice, cassava, cashew and rubber,” he said.

The ministry is boosting the process of sanitary and phyto-sanitary on other agricultural products eligible for exports to Vietnam and other countries.

China remained the top buyer of Cambodia’s milled rice, accounting for almost 50 percent of the kingdom’s total rice export, Sakhon said.

Besides rice, the minister said, Cambodia shipped other agricultural produce to China including bananas, mangoes, cassava and cashew nuts.

Agriculture is a mainstay of the Cambodian economy, constituting about 22 percent of the country’s GDP.

Prime Minister Hun Sen had said during the inauguration of the Cambodia-China Friendship Bridge last week that the agricultural sector in Cambodia is on an upward trajectory growing despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other sectors like the service sector, have been hit hard by the pandemic, while exports of agricultural products are on the increase and cultivation also exceeded the targeted plan, he said. Khmer Times