The Kingdom’s main agricultural exports were classified as milled rice, cassava, mangoes, fresh bananas, peppercorn, cashew nuts, corn, soybeans, mung beans, palm oil, tobacco, chilli and assorted vegetables. Heng Chivoan
Cambodia exported 4,454,505.33 tonnes of agricultural products in the first half of this year, surging by 84.64 per cent year-on-year, according to Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon on June 30.
This was 2,041,982.72 tonnes more than the 2,412,522.61 tonnes recorded in January-June 2020, the minister pointed out via social media.
Shipped out to 62 countries and territories, the goods were worth more than $2.571 billion, based on exporters’ invoices, he said.
The Kingdom’s main agricultural exports were classified as milled rice, cassava, mangoes, fresh bananas, peppercorn, cashew nuts, corn, soybeans, mung beans, palm oil, tobacco, chilli and assorted vegetables.
The minister noted that agricultural exports remained on a solid growth path, saying that his ministry is working on promoting the Cambodia Good Agricultural Practices (CamGAP) standards and the use of QR Codes, to identify certified growers’ produce.
This, he said, would spur improvements in the quality and safety of Cambodian produce for the benefit of domestic and international consumers.
“CamGAP … [also] fuels Cambodian agricultural exports to international markets,” Sakhon said.
Hun Lak, director of grower and exporter Longmate Agriculture Co Ltd, which manages 1,000ha of banana trees in Kampot province, told The Post on July 1 that the Kingdom’s agricultural sector has witnessed a steady increase in investment, all the more pronounced during Covid-19.
Among the factors driving this trend are the country’s favourable geographical location on the Indochina peninsula, an ideal climate for agriculture, and government incentives for the sector, he noted.
He voiced hope that desirable investment patterns would persist into the second half, lifting agricultural exports even higher.
To maintain export growth, Lak stressed that investors and farmers must have a firm grasp of how to properly analyse market demand and settle on a crop, and then pick up the hygienic cultivation, harvesting and packaging techniques that would meet potential buyers’ wishes.
The ongoing growth in Cambodian agricultural exports is widely-believed to be a driving force behind agreements with countries – such as China and South Korea – for imports of these products.
Last year, the Kingdom raked in $3.433 billion from sales of agricultural products abroad, according to the ministry.
