PHNOM PENH, Jan 2 (NNN-AKP) – Cambodia’s rice export to China surpassed 300,000 tonnes for the first time in 2021, marking another historic milestone in the rice sector, between the two countries, according to a report from the China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC)’s Cambodia branch, yesterday.
The country exported 306,222 tonnes of milled rice to China last year, an increase of 22.8 percent from 249,322 tonnes, a year earlier, Chen Qisheng, general manager of CCIC’s Cambodia branch, said.
Chen said, the growth has subsequently increased from about 5,000 tonnes in 2012, to more than 300,000 tonnes last year, the highest first time ever in a year.
“With strong support from China, Cambodia’s rice production and processing industry has made great progress,” he said.
Chen said, apart from rice, Cambodia first exported fresh bananas and fresh mangoes to China in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and the two countries have been working together to enable the export of Cambodian longan fruit to China in the near future.
As the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) entered into force yesterday, Chen believed that, the two pacts will further boost Cambodia’s socio-economic development, especially in agriculture.
“These agreements will provide tremendous benefits to import and export enterprises in Cambodia, especially the agricultural ones,” he said.
“With the two agreements, in addition to export to China, Cambodia’s high-quality agricultural products, such as rice, bananas, mangoes, fragrant coconuts, and cashews can also be exported to Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc., which will effectively promote enterprises to improve efficiency and sustainable development,” Chen added.– NNN-AKP
