China’s appetite for Cambodian mangoes grows amid surge in demand for imported ‘premium’ fruit

Cambodian mangoes were once labelled ‘Made in Vietnam’ before being exported to China. Farmers are banking on the China-Cambodia FTA to change this

China bought US$172.45 billion worth of imported fruits in the first half of 2021, fuelled by a rising middle-class hungry for premium durians and mangosteens

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Cambodian mangoes were once labelled ‘Made in Vietnam’ before being exported to China. Image: SCMP

Su-Lin TanandSineat Yon

Published: 8:30am, 28 Dec 2021Updated: 2:08pm, 14 Oct 2022

Mangoes are a matter of national pride for Cambodian farmer Chum Chamm.

For years, Chamm, who grows mangoes in the well-known Kampong Speu province, witnessed Vietnamese traders come to Cambodian farms to cut deals for entire harvests of the fruit. They often brought their own workers to pick and pack the fruit in brown paper, labelling the packages in Chinese, before sending them to mainland China and the rest of the region.

“We’re farmers and we have nothing to do with transportation. But it upset me when Vietnamese traders put a ‘Made in Vietnam’ label on our Cambodian products,” the 43-year-old told This Week in Asia at his farm 90km west of the capital Phnom Penh.

Cambodian producers had traditionally sold their mangoes to Vietnamese traders as part of their bustling land border trade but also because the country lacked export deals, technology and capital investment needed to process and ship fruits directly to big purchasers such as China.

Things are changing since Beijing and Phnom Penh signed a deal last June allowing exporters to tap into a billion-dollar market fuelled by consumers hungry for Asian produce. In April, China certified 37 Cambodian mango plantations and five packaging factories as compliant.

The newly-ratified China-Cambodia free-trade agreement – which comes into effect on Saturday – is expected to boost Cambodian exports by reducing tariffs on nearly all goods, including mangoes, to zero.