3 RCEP members among top 10 markets for Cambodian garments

Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are RCEP member nations. Among these, Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore are major garment and textile importing countries.

According to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro, Cambodia’s garment exports totalled $2.276 billion in the first three months of 2024. Japan, an RCEP member country, was the second largest market after the US. Cambodia’s garment exports to Japan were $349.829 million, which was 15.37 per cent of the total shipment. Garment exports to Japan increased by 4.68 per cent from $334.185 million in January-March 2023. It was noted at $303.040 million in 2022. Therefore, the trade increased by 10.28 per cent in January-March 2022 and 2.96 per cent in January-March 2021. It is to be noted that RCEP came into effect on January 1, 2022.

Cambodia exported garments worth $106.010 million to China in January-March 2024. It was the sixth largest market for the partner country with a share of 4.66 per cent of the total garment shipment from Cambodia. Exports to China increased by 18.76 per cent from $89.263 million in January-March 2023. However, the shipment had slipped by 15.88 per cent in the same period of the previous year compared to January-March 2022 when trade was noted at $106.111 million.South Korea was the tenth largest market with a share of 2.66 per cent of the total garment exports from Cambodia in the first quarter of this year. Trade with South Korea was valued at $60.480 million in the same period. Earlier, Cambodia’s apparel exports to the partner country were noted at $61.203 million in January-March 2023 and $56.437 million in January-March 2022, according to TexPro.

Two other major garment and textile importing countries are Singapore and New Zealand. However, Cambodia’s garment exports to these countries were limited. The country exported garments worth $17.299 million to Singapore and $7.263 million to New Zealand in the first three months of 2024.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)