Cambodia's agricultural exports up nearly 64 per cent last year, says minister

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 1 (Xinhua): Cambodia exported 7.98 million tonnes of agricultural products in 2021, up 63.8 per cent year-on-year, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon said on Saturday.

Shipped to 68 countries and regions, the South-East Asian country earned a gross revenue of US$4.96 billion from the exports last year, he wrote on his official Facebook page.

Main agricultural produce for exports included rice, rubber, cassava, mangoes, bananas, pepper, cashew nuts, corn, palm oil, and tobacco, among others.

The minister said overall, the kingdom had seen a sharp rise in the exports of all agricultural products, except milled rice.

Cambodia exported a total of 617,069 tons of milled rice in 2021, down 10.6 percent year-on-year, he said, adding that the country earned 527 million U.S. dollars in revenue from the export of milled rice last year.

China is still the top buyer of Cambodia's milled rice, accounting for 50.2 per cent of the kingdom's total rice export, Sakhon said, adding that the country sold 309,709 tons of rice to China, up 7 per cent.

Besides rice, the minister said Cambodia shipped many kinds of other agricultural produce to China including bananas, mangoes, cassava, and cashew nuts.

He said nearly 377,000 tons of fresh bananas, 14,246 tons of mango jams and 4,771 tons of fresh mangoes, 103,918 tons of cassava chips and starch, and 4,552 tons of cashew nuts had been exported to China last year. - Xinhua