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Cambodia: Cold storage shortage, Covid-19 hurt agriculture exports
The shortage of cold storage for transporting fresh agricultural products and strict measures in importing countries during Covid-19 have caused disruptions in the export of Cambodia’s agricultural products, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.
In a statement issued yesterday, the ministry said that the factors that affected the export of fresh agricultural products to foreign markets were due to the lack of cooling storage for agriculture, restrictions on the control of goods to prevent the spread of Covid-19, restrictions on sanitary and phytosanitary.
Based on talks with a number of major agricultural exporters, the drop in exports was due to a number of factors, including a lack of cooling storage for fresh agricultural products that have led to a sharp rise in the price of transport compared to the period before the Covid-19 crisis.
The transport cost is now more than three times higher, read the statement, citing that the imports of those products meet disruption in the China market.
“Tightening the control of goods to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from foreign countries at the China-Vietnam import port, causing blockage of goods, exports, the goods imports to Vietnam have declined as exports from Vietnam to China have slowed due to the Covid-19 crisis.”
“Restrictions on sanitary and phytosanitary conditions caused by the discovery of Covid-19 on the packaging of bananas by the Chinese customs authorities, some companies have temporarily suspended exports and some companies left unharvested,” the statement read.
Sin Chanthy, president of the Cambodia Logistics Association, said that the normal price of shipping to China was only $2,500, but this year it has risen to $8,000.
Shipping costs to the United States and Europe jumped from more than $4,000 to nearly $20,000, and some destinations increased by more than $20,000, he said.
“We run normally, shipping may decrease to some countries, but some places are also in strong demand, there is an increase. Overall, there is an increase in transportation, exports,” he said.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the closing ceremony of the annual meeting of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, that the Kingdom’s export -garment, non-garment industrial products and agricultural products increased by 33 percent in the first quarter.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is working to increase production with high quality in accordance with the needs of the importing countries and strives to negotiate the requirements for phytosanitary for the export of those agricultural products to foreign markets.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501065109/cold-storage-shortage-covid-19-hurt-agriculture-exports/