Cambodia’s export of non-rice commodities has fallen 1.95 percent to 2.76 million tonnes in the first four months of 2022 from 2.81 million tonnes in the same period last year, while the export of rice to Vietnam rose 7.79 percent to 1.64 million tonnes from 1.53 million tonnes, according to a report released by the agriculture ministry on Friday.
Vietnam, Thailand and China are the main exporting destinations for Cambodia’s non-rice commodities including dried cassava slices, powder and waste, raw and processed cashew nuts, corn nuts, mung beans, soybean, fresh bananas, grapefruits, fresh and dried mangos, coconut oil, pepper and tobacco, according to the report.
Some other countries also have imported those commodities from Cambodia such as the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, India, Japan, South Korea, Britain, Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Australia, Hungary, Malaysia, the Philippines and Kazakhstan, while France and New Zealand are the markets for Cambodia’s vegetables.
Cambodia has exported 0.364 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts during this period — 0.363 million tonnes to Vietnam, 1,250 tonnes to Thailand, 98.16 tonnes to India and 13.58 tonnes to China — a 47.6 percent fall compared to the same period of 2021.
The export of processed cashew nuts has fallen 58.18 percent to 244.97 tonnes in the first four months of this year — 123.38 tonnes to China, 19.79 tonnes to Japan and 9.80 tonnes to Taiwan — compared to the same period of the previous year.
The report added that 0.6 million tonnes of corn nuts have been exported to Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea — 54.31 percent less than the first four months of the year before — while export of fresh bananas from Cambodia to China and Vietnam was 0.14 million tonnes, down by 15.71 percent.
Cambodia’s exports of grapefruits, fresh mangos and dried mango slices fell 70.31 percent, 26.38 percent and 13.84 percent this year compared to the same period last year. Thailand, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Britain, South Korea and Italy were the main buyer of these commodities.
“The ministry has pushed all institutions, especially departments of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in all municipalities and provinces, to pay higher attention to mitigate the damages in farm production due to natural disasters, spreads of black beetles and diseases,” Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sokhon said in the report.
The value of export of non-rice commodities was $1.087 billion in the first four months of this year, while the value of both rice and paddy export was $485 million — rice at $189 million and paddy was $296 million.
During this period, the rubber planting area was 404,044 hectares in which agri-business rubber plantation was 47,944 hectares, rubber plantation on economic land concession, 192,402 hectares and household rubber plantation, 163,698 hectares.
The report added that Cambodia exported 61,839 tonnes of dry rubber in the first quarter of this year, which is 783 tonnes or one percent more than the same period in 2021, while the average price of dry rubber has fallen by three percent to $1,594 per tonne.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
