First Ever Shipment of Cambodian Mangos en Route to China

On May 7, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held a launch ceremony to mark the start of Cambodian mango exports to China. Less than two weeks earlier, on April 26, China’s General Administration of Customs announced that 37 mango orchards and 5 packaging plants in Cambodia had been officially granted permission to export mangos to China.

The two countries have reportedly agreed on an annual export quota of 500,000 tons. However, given the current processing capacity of Cambodia’s packaging plants, it appears that it may take some time to meet this quota. According to Veng Sakhon, the Cambodian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, at present Cambodia is only capable of sending 100,000 tons of mangos to China each year but many packaging facilities are being upgraded to increase capacity. Consequently, the export volume is anticipated to grow significantly in coming years.

As of 2020, the planted mango acreage in Cambodia had reached 130,000 hectares with an estimated output of 1.6–1.7 million tons. As Cambodia’s domestic market is quite saturated with mangos, this oversupply has inevitably resulted in plummeting prices this year, with the farm gate price at one point falling as low as $0.04 per kilogram.

Cambodia has been sending mangos to neighboring countries over the years. In 2020, the country’s mango exports exceeded 950,000 tons, of which almost 90% arrived at overseas markets without a phytosanitary certificate. The recent approval of Cambodian mangos to enter the Chinese market is expected to stimulate the transformation of Cambodia’s mango production from small-scale or family-run farms to large-scale commercial plantations.

Image: Pixabay

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.