About the agriculture industry in Cambodia

 about the agriculture industry in Cambodia

• About 80% of Cambodia’s population is engaged in agriculture.
• The sector accounted for about 36% of GDP in 2012 and thus the Cambodian government encourages investment in agriculture.
• Products are intensively traded with neighbouring regional countries.
• Agricultural growth in 2014 decelerated in response to declining world agricultural prices, according to the latest World Bank economic outlook on the region.
• They expect growth in the sector will continue to be affected by dampening agricultural commodity prices in the international market.
• To assist the recovery of the sector, the World Bank suggests increasing public investment in farm advisory services, seed development and irrigation infrastructure to enhance shock resilience, and improving rice milling and logistical costs, which would help, improve competitiveness.
• Most of the current demand for water pumps, well drilling machines, tractors, tilling equipment, rice milling, drying, packaging equipment, fertilizers, insecticides and seeds comes from private agribusiness investors and NGOs.
• There is significant potential to expand the production and processing of high yield varieties of rice, cashews, corn and other crops. Several investment projects in palm oil, tapioca, rubber and cassava are underway.
• Rice milling is also an emerging industry.

The growing export market for Cambodian organic produce presents many new opportunities, especially in rice, pepper and moringa. 

Rice 

• Rice is a traditional crop of cultural and historical significance and its production is extensive and widespread.
• The cost of rice paddy production is one of the lowest in the world.
• Duty-free access granted to Cambodia by the EU and Russia has been a key driver of rapid export growth since 2009.
• Cambodia’s rice exports between January and May 2014 increased by 1 % from the same time last year, to 148,262 metric tonnes according to figures from the Federation of Cambodian Rice Exporters.
• The main rice export destinations are Malaysia, France, Poland, Gabon and China. Global trade in milled rice is expected to remain at near record volumes over medium term at 30+ million metric tonnes per year.
• However, Myanmar is likely to re-emerge as a large low cost rice exporter and major competitor as it gained its duty-free status from July 2014.

Rubber 

• Cambodia has a long history of rubber cultivation that began in French colonial times and it remains an important crop.
• There has been a 34% rise in dry rubber exports in 2013 according to Ministry of Commence figures released at the start of 2014, thanks to rising global demand.
• The revenue earned through rubber equates approximately $170 million up from $160 million the year before.
• The main trading partners for rubber are China, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and some European countries.
• The sector is also seeing an increasing number of domestic farmers as well as foreign investors who use land- concessions to build large scale rubber plantations.  

Cassava

Cambodia exported 300,000 tonnes of fresh and dry cassava in 2013, down 58% compared with the 720,000 tonnes in 2012, according to recent figures released by the Ministry of Commence. Cassava, which is used to produce animal feed and ethanol, has been sold mainly to Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and China. The decline was explained by the previous years’ flooding which destroyed many crops, however, farmers are discouraged to continue growing these types of crops. These crops are also subject to disease.