Cambodia 'perfectly positioned' for mango sales to Europe

This year Cambodia has about 60,000 hectares of mango plantation across the country. Mong Reththy, known as the king of agriculture in Cambodia for his role in running the large Mong Reththy Group, is planning on increasing the countries mango exports to Europe.

Mr. Reththy told Khmer Times that Cambodia is perfectly positioned to sell mangoes to European buyers because Europe, Japan, Korea and northern China cannot grow the fruit.

However, he foresees problems with transportation and competition with ASEAN.

“Transportation is more expensive and there is also competition with neighboring countries, including Thailand and Vietnam who have been in the business for a long time,” Mr. Reththy said. “We cannot compare ourselves with Thailand and Vietnam in terms of mango exports. We are far from them because we do not have direct flights for exportation, while Thailand has a strong transportation sector.”

“So far this year we have exported 36 tons of mango to European markets via air,” he said.

Mr. Reththy also noted that the current largest export destination for Cambodian mango is China, as neither the Japanese nor Korean government allows for the importation of the product from Cambodia.

In late 2013, the Mong Reththy Group co-invested $2 million to build a factory in Preah Sihanouk province for the packaging and export of Cambodian mangoes, and is the first company to formally ship the fruit overseas. The factory covers 12 hectares of land and is a joint investment with Singaporean company King Fruit.