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Cambodia: Kingdom prioritises food exports
A senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture says it has started listing the prioritised and potential agriculture products for export to China because a soon-to-be-signed Cambodia-China free-trade agreement (FTA) will be implemented by early next year.
They are mangoes, Pailin Logans , pepper, bird’s nests, dragon fruit, durians, fragrant coconuts, jack fruit, red corn, chillis and oranges, said Ngin Chhay, general director of the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA), of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
However, he said whether Cambodia can export quickly or slowly depends on negotiations over each crop with Chinese counterparts. The ministry has already prepared potential crops and studied the particular requirements as well as the quality and standards and worked with groups of farmers and producers.
Chhay said the Ministry of Agriculture is to diversify the agriculture products and boost productivity, as well as promoting the quality, safety and standards and the requirements of sanitary and phyto-sanitary for importing countries.
“We have set the mechanism to push the export of agriculture produces in the context of the Chinese market when a soon-to-be signed Cambodia-China Free Trade Agreement is ratified and implemented early next year,” Chhay added.
“The vision of the Ministry of Agriculture is to modernise agriculture in Cambodia to be competitive, inclusive, climate resilient and sustainable.
“The ministry will expand and build strong agriculture cooperatives that have the ability to produce the crops. The ministry will be also working with agriculture cooperatives to supply technology and techniques and teach ethical behaviour to the producers.”
Chhay added that the ministry will make the assessment on the sanitary and phytosanitary on the prioritised crops for export and guide the farmers to implement good agriculture practice and sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards in order to meet the export requirements of China and the EU market.
“The ministry will also check the list of pesticides used in Cambodia and ban products that they are used on if they are not allowed in importing countries,” Chhay added.
The ministry of agriculture will also call for collaboration among all stakeholders – government line ministries, development partners and the private sector – to solve the issues of agriculture regarding water, electricity, transport, processing, export, growing, production costs, standard requirements and quality of products.
For the first seven months of 2020, Cambodia exported officially more than 2.68 million tonnes of agriculture products, up 9 percent compared with the same period last year to the foreign market. Cambodia’s rice exports were 426,070 tonnes, up 38.33 percent for the first seven months. Rice exports to the EU increased 37.7 percent, to China (including Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan) 25.95 percent, to the Asean market 44 percent and to other markets such as France, the US and Russia 72 percent.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50752805/kingdom-prioritises-food-exports/