Trade Officials Aim for Bigger Bite of China’s Market

Khmer Times/Sum Manet

Monday, 08 February 2016

Farmers package dried cassava after harvesting the crop in Stung Treng province late last year. KT/ Mai Vireak

Cambodian trade officials are urging their Chinese counterparts to boost imports of Cambodian rubber, cassava, sugar and pepper to narrow the trade imbalance between the two countries, officials said after a meeting last week. 

The request was made during the three-day Inter-Governmental Coordinating Committee, which ended on Friday with an agreement by Chinese officials that the country would increase its imports of agricultural produce from Cambodia as long as Chinese hygiene and quality standards are met and there was demand for the produce, according to a statement released after the meeting.   

The statement was made as data showed rice exports rising more than 20 percent last month compared to the same month last year.    

Cambodia exported 44,033 tons of rice – including white and fragrant – in January, up 22 percent from the 35, 921 tons in the same month last year, according to a report from the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export Formality. China imported 6,999 tons of rice from Cambodia last month, according to official figures. 

China welcomes the import of Cambodia agricultural products, but they need to meet Chinese standards as well as demand, the statement released on Friday said. 

Hean Vanhan, deputy director of the general department of agriculture at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Khmer Times that exports to China were a major factor in the rise in rice exports. 

He said officials had been working hard to identify new markets and that the close relationship between the Cambodian and Chinese governments helped open the door to China’s market. Cambodia’s rice farmers are also becoming more productive, Mr. Vanhan has said.

Mr. Vanhan added that because China is tightening quality and hygiene standards on imported rice, millers and exporters need to ensure they complied with these standards. “We need to transform some policies in order to increase exports,” he said.

Khann Samban, director of the department of industrial crops at the Agriculture Ministry, previously told Khmer Times that his department is trying to expand export markets for cassava farmers. 

The ministry has signed memoranda of understanding with China and South Korea to boost the demand for Cambodian cassava, Mr. Samban said. 

Nguon Lay, president of the Kampot Pepper Promotion Association, told Khmer Times that only a small amount of pepper is exported to China. Most goes to Europe and Japan, he added.

“We haven’t known whether the Chinese market has potential or not, and due to the limited supply of pepper, we export a very small amount of pepper to China,” Mr. Lay said. “We are expanding to 114 hectares of pepper production this year [from 110 hectares] to increase pepper exports,” he added. 

Trade between Cambodia and China reached about $3.7 billion in 2014. Trade between the two countries is estimated at $4.2 billion last year and is expected to rise to $4.3 billion this year, according to a report from the Commerce Ministry late last year. 

The report showed that Cambodian exports to China reached about $500 million last year, compared to $483 million in 2014 and $364 million in 2013.