A worker at a rice storage building in Phnom Penh. Cambodia shipped nearly 600,000 tonnes of milled rice to foreign markets, earning $515 million and 2.4 million tonnes of paddy rice worth $814 million. KT/Chor Sokunthea

Cambodia has earned $1.35 billion from paddy and milled rice exports in the first eleven months of this year, a report by the General Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries showed on Friday.

From January to November, the Kingdom shipped nearly 600,000 tonnes of milled rice to foreign markets, earning $515 million and 2.4 million tonnes of paddy rice worth $814 million, the report said.

The exported rice varieties included fragrant rice, organic rice, white rice, parboiled rice and japonica rice.

Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Im Rachna said that joint efforts between the government and the private sector helped the exports.

“We work together with the main goal of bringing economic benefits for Cambodia’s agricultural sector and thereby help the country’s economic growth,” Rachna said.

China and Europe are the major markets for Cambodia’s milled rice.

Cambodia’s Rice Federation has set 700,000 tonnes as the rice export target for Cambodia in 2023.

Meanwhile, Cambodia shipped nearly four million tonnes of non-rice agricultural products abroad during the first eleven months, earning more than $2.5 billion, the report stated.

The main export items include rice, bananas, mangoes, cassava, cashew nuts, corn, palm oil, pepper and tobacco.

Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy. The sector contributed 24.4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in 2021, the ministry said.

Cambodia is also planning to increase its milled rice exports to China by 20 percent. This was disclosed by Prime Minister Hun Manet in September last.

While addressing a gathering of garment workers, the Prime Minister emphasised that trade relations with China benefitted the Kingdom by getting many huge investment projects that created hundreds of thousands of jobs for locals and also increased the country’s exports, especially in the agriculture sector.

Mr Hun Manet said Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to the proposal to increase Cambodia’s rice export to the country by about 20 percent. Mr Hun Manet also asked relevant institutions to study the possibility of exporting more agricultural products to the many cities in China.

He also urged the private sector, especially rice exporters to work in unison to boost rice exports and become more competitive compared to the neighbouring countries.

Published Date: December 5, 2023