Cambodia's rice export to China exceeds 300,000 tons for 1st time last year

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's rice export to China surpassed 300,000 tons 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 on Saturday.

The southeast Asian nation exported 306,222 tons of milled rice to China last year, an increase of 22.8 percent from 249,322 tons in a year earlier, Chen Qisheng, general manager of CCIC's Cambodia branch said.

Chen said the growth has subsequently increased from about 5,000 tons in 2012 to more than 300,000 tons 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 told Xinhua.

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 on Saturday, Chen believed that the two pacts will further boost Cambodia's socio-economic development, especially the development of 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 the 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.