European Union still Cambodia's best export destination

The European Union will continue to remain Cambodia's biggest export recipient, mopping up 2.32 billion U.S. dollars in shipments in 2015, with the U.S. following a close second at 2.07 billion U.S. dollars, local media reported on Friday, citing Commerce Ministry estimates.

The ministry, which based the estimate on export numbers for the first 10 months, reported that the EU's exports were dominated by garments, around 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, with the rest of the shipments coming from textiles, footwear and rice, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

The Asia Pacific market, a growing export destination for the kingdom, had 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in imports from Cambodia.

Ho Sivyong, director of the Import and Export Department at the Ministry of Commerce, said that an increase in exports was reflective of both the U.S. and E.U. having increased confidence in buying from the kingdom.

"There is not much change in the Asian market, but we've seen an increase in agriculture products. We have also started focusing on the African market,"he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Cambodia's trade volume in 2014 was valued at 18.1 billion U.S. dollars, with the country's export volume amounted to 7.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Of the exports in 2014, the EU received 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, close to this year's estimates, the U.S. imported 1.7 billion U.S. dollars from the Kingdom, with this year's import estimates expected to surpass that.