Agriculture sector remains one of the economic drivers of Cambodia’s economic growth despite its share of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has shrunk.

The Cambodian government has recently announced the implementation of a new strategic policy for agricultural development, aiming to upgrade agriculture from household to commercial farming and enhance farmers’ income through value-added products

Under the fresh policies, the Cambodian government wants to be one of the top ten agricultural-producing countries in the world.

Prime Minister Hun Manet said that the agriculture sector contributes to Cambodia’s goal of becoming an upper middle-income economy by 2030 and a high-income nation by 2050.

“Agriculture is a priority sector that ensures food security, nutrition and exports,” he said.

“We now put in place additional policies to strengthen our agricultural potential, helping farmers benefit more from agriculture,” Mr Hun Manet said, adding that the policy also aims to upgrade the traditional agricultural practices to modern methods.

“We have to upgrade the family-based traditional agriculture to modern methods with high standards,” he observed.

Agriculture is one of the four pillars supporting Cambodia’s economy. The sector contributed 24.4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Cambodia in 2021, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Cambodia.

Cambodia shipped 7.31 million tons of agricultural products to 75 countries and regions during the January-November period this year, a year-on-year drop of 4.6 percent, the report said.

Cambodia earned a gross revenue of $3.9 billion from the export of agricultural products in the first 11 months of 2023, according to a ministry report.

“Despite a slight drop in the commodity export in the first 11 months of this year, we’re optimistic that the growth will rebound soon because our export in November had seen a significant increase,” Ngin Chhay, director-general of the MAFF’s General Directorate of Agriculture, said in the report.

The agricultural export receipt accounts for 19.5 percent of Cambodia’s total export of $20 billion, of which more than half is shared by manufacturing product export, in the January-November period.

Major agricultural exports included rice, rubber, cassava, mangoes, fresh bananas, pepper, cashew nuts, longan, corn and palm oil among others, the report said.

Hun Lak of the Cambodia Rice Federation attributed the growth in exports to the government’s efforts. “The government has paid high attention and made significant efforts to expand the export markets. These efforts will bring more development to the agriculture sector and further boost exports,” Lak told Khmer Times.

Cambodia has earned $1.35 billion from paddy and milled rice exports in the first eleven months of 2023, according to a report by the General Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry of Cambodia.

From January to November, Cambodia shipped nearly 600,000 tonnes of milled rice to foreign markets, earning $515 million and 2.4 million tonnes of paddy rice worth $814 million, the report said.

The exported rice varieties included fragrant rice, organic rice, white rice, parboiled rice and japonica rice.

Spokeswoman of the Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Im Rachna said that joint efforts between the government and the private sector helped the exports. “We work together with the main goal of bringing economic benefits for Cambodia’s agricultural sector and thereby help the country’s economic growth,” Rachna said.

Cambodia’s Rice Federation has set 700,000 tonnes as the rice export target for Cambodia in 2023.

China, Vietnam and Thailand are the major importers of Cambodia’s agricultural items.

Besides rice, cashew nut, pepper, mango, banana and cassava are the main potential agricultural products listed for prioritizing export to foreign markets.

Cambodian pepper will be available in China directly after rice, fresh mango, fresh banana, and longan.

Pepper farmers in Cambodia are expected to benefit from the move, which will boost production and diversify markets, said Mak Ny, president of the Cambodia Pepper and Spices Federation.

“This is great news for pepper farmers, and we will be seeking partners to export the pepper to China,” Ny told Khmer Times.

The markets in China, the US and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa are new hopes for local pepper, he said.

The Cambodian government has reserved $100 million for boosting Cambodia’s agricultural sector.

The budget will help stabilise the prices of agricultural products for farmers, while the prices of agricultural products have always fluctuated based on demands in the international market, said the Premier.

The Cambodian government has planned to deploy agricultural officials to all communes nationwide to work directly with farmers.

These officials are tasked to technically assist farmers, form agricultural cooperatives, link production chains and guide farmers to reduce production costs.

Additionally, to enhance crop cultivation capacity and ensure food security and sustainable development in 2023, the Cambodia Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has adopted strategies geared towards inter alia energy and cost efficiency, modern technologies and methods, the use of genetically pure seeds, production support infrastructure, low-interest loans, contract farming, networking among growers, and commercialisation.

“The Cambodian government has set a range of policies and strategies to develop the agricultural sector into a modern and competitive sector to support the national economic growth, improve the farmers’ livelihoods, and contribute to achieving the upper middle-income status by 2030 and the high-income status by 2050,” the premier said.

However, the shortage of local processing facilities and high cost of products made from electricity, transport, and low cutting-edge knowledge on processing are the main barriers to the Cambodia government’s target.

Local investment in processing facilities is in need as Cambodia is a major exporter, especially of agricultural products for processing, said Lim Heng, vice-president of the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce.

“The processing and production plants will not only create jobs but also secure a market for local raw agricultural products,” Heng told Khmer Times.