Last Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia announced that Chinese and Cambodian officials are scheduled to sign an agreement on June 9 permitting the Kingdom to export 500,000 tonnes of mangoes per year to China. The meeting will be held at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Mangoes will become the second agricultural product given the green light for export to China after yellow bananas were approved in April of last year.
The opening of the Chinese market is expected to further promote the development of agricultural products in Cambodia, and insiders said receiving large import orders from China will be a great boon for the Kingdom’s economy.
Mong Reththy, board chairman of agro-industrial conglomerate Mong Reththy Group Co Ltd, which invests in the cultivation and export of mangoes, told The Post on Thursday that the agreement will provide many benefits to the people, the mango growers, the investors and the national economy.
He said China represents a large market for mangoes and transporting them there will be easier than exporting them to European markets, adding that his company currently exports mangoes to many countries in Europe as well as Russia.
In January, Cambodia and South Korea signed an agreement to allow Cambodia to export mangoes directly to South Korea through Hyundai Mao Legacy Co Ltd, a company that uses steam treatment to sterilise their crops and exterminate pests, a practice preferred by South Koreans.
A ministry report said Cambodia exported 44,099 tonnes of fresh mangoes during the first five months of the year, up 50.95 per cent from 29,214 tonnes in the same period last year.
According to phnompenhpost.com, Cambodia exported 58,162 tonnes of fresh mangoes last year to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, France, Russia and Hong Kong.