ASEAN business opportunities

Phnom PenH, May 9 (Xinhua) -- (Reporter Yang Qiang Following the export of Cambodia's first agricultural product, rice, to China, starting from May 2019, Cambodia's first fruit variety, fresh bananas, was exported to China. Since then, fresh mangoes, fresh longans, fresh coconuts, peppers and aquatic animals and other characteristic products have successively entered the Chinese market, with their quantities steadily increasing year by year. Chen Qisheng, the former general manager of China Certification & Inspection Group Cambodia Co., LTD., told China News Service in an interview on the 9th that under the framework of the "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation between China and Cambodia, Cambodia's agriculture is currently facing a new round of golden development opportunities.

Thanks to the implementation of the China-Cambodia Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), high-quality agricultural products from Cambodia have been continuously entering the Chinese market in recent years. Chen Qisheng witnessed the rapid development of agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

Rice is one of the important agricultural products that Cambodia exports to China. Cambodian rice exports to China have been increasing significantly since 150,000 tons in 2016 and exceeded 300,000 tons for the first time in 2022. The latest report released by the Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) shows that in the first four months of this year, Cambodia has exported over 280,000 tons of rice to 59 countries and regions around the world, of which 70,000 tons were exported to China.

From 2017 to 2023, over a period of six years, Chen Qisheng led his team to leverage their professional technical advantages in animal and plant inspection and quarantine. They delved into Cambodia's rice-growing areas, rice processing plants, fruit planting bases, and packaging factories, promoting China's inspection and quarantine standards, quality standards, and food safety standards, and guiding enterprises to enhance their quality control capabilities for agricultural products. Provide protection and support for agricultural cooperation and trade development between China and Cambodia.

The Cambodian government attaches great importance to agricultural development. Its policies not only focus on ensuring national food security but also strive to find international markets for high-quality agricultural products. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce of Cambodia, the export value of the country's major agricultural products increased significantly in 2024, and China is one of the main importers of Cambodia's agricultural products.

Agricultural cooperation between China and Cambodia is by no means limited to the increase in trade exchanges. Instead, it promotes the overall quality improvement and upgrading of the industry from multiple aspects such as technology, investment and services. Behind the abundant achievements, a group of Chinese entrepreneurs and agricultural experts who have long been deeply involved in Cambodia's agriculture jointly form the force driving the steady progress of agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

The Tbankkhmon Province Perfume Coconut Demonstration Garden is one of the first enterprises from Cambodia to export fresh coconuts to China. After completing the cultivation of 230 hectares of perfume coconuts in the first phase and forming an industrial scale, the second phase of 300 hectares is under development and planting, and has become a leading enterprise in the development of Cambodia's coconut industry.

This demonstration park has collaborated with relevant Chinese research institutions to establish a research and development center and implement a demonstration project for the research and development of key technologies for the breeding and production of high-quality coconut varieties in Cambodia. Investors from China said that Cambodia is rich in agricultural resources and has unique advantages in developing the coconut industry. If more efforts are made to promote it, it will soon become the leading industry in Cambodia's agriculture.

Pan Dongfeng, executive vice president of the Cambodia-China Chamber of Commerce and president of the Agricultural Industry Association, has tallied that up to now, more than 20 types of Cambodian agricultural products have completed export agreements to China. In an interview, he pointed out that the accelerated implementation of the "Fish and Rice Corridor" cooperation plan between China and Cambodia, as well as China's encouragement for more enterprises to invest in Cambodia and its opening up of the super-large-scale market to Cambodia, will inject strong impetus into Cambodia's economic development.

The signing of several important documents between the two countries in April this year marks that the cooperation between China and Cambodia in the agricultural field has reached a new level. The Cambodian authorities encourage practitioners to take active actions and share the new opportunities in the Chinese market. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Cambodia and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos signed a memorandum of understanding. Both sides agreed to utilize the China-Laos Railway corridor to promote the export of Cambodian agricultural products to China via Laos.

Source: China News Service