There is significant potential for expanding trade cooperation between Viet Nam and Cambodia

The close geographical proximity, convenient trade routes, and the Cambodian consumer's preference for Vietnamese products, along with the context of increasingly positive, in-depth, practical, and effective bilateral relations across all fields, are favorable factors that promote trade between businesses of the two countries, opening up significant opportunities for economic, trade, and investment cooperation.

This is the assessment of Mr. Do Viet Phuong, Head of the Viet Nam Trade Office in Cambodia, in an interview with a VNA reporter in Phnom Penh on the occasion of Viet Nam hosting the Spring Fair 2026.

The Spring Fair 2026, held for the first time in Hanoi, was a large-scale event, bringing together 3,000 booths from numerous businesses, cooperatives, craft villages, and production and trading units in various fields such as agricultural products, processed foods, handicrafts, consumer goods, and supporting industrial products. The abundance of products, along with professional display and promotion methods, has contributed to bringing many local brands closer to consumers, both domestically and internationally.

According to Trade Counselor Do Viet Phuong, through the networking activities of the Vietnamese Trade Office, Cambodia is one of six countries with exhibition booths at this year's Spring Fair. With its strengths in agricultural products such as rice, cassava chips, and cashews, Cambodian businesses have contributed with distinctive booths, helping to the success of the fair and bringing valuable health products and meaningful Tet gifts to Vietnamese families this Lunar New Year (Year of the Horse).

During his State visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia on February 6th, at a meeting with officials and staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh and the Vietnamese community living, working, and studying in Cambodia, General Secretary To Lam urged the business community to focus on promoting investment cooperation and building local agricultural processing plants. This would help save on raw material transportation costs and increase the added value in the production chain, bringing practical benefits to the business community and people of both countries.

Commercial Counselor Do Viet Phuong believes that Cambodia currently has significant potential and positive prospects for cooperation in processing and exporting agricultural products, especially for key commodities such as rice, cashew nuts, and rubber. In recent years, Cambodia's cultivated area and agricultural output have increased quite rapidly, creating a stable source of raw materials for the development of the processing industry.

However, a limitation remains the low rate of deep processing; most agricultural products are still exported in raw form, resulting in low added value. According to the Head of the Vietnamese Trade Office, this presents an opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to expand cooperation with Cambodia to build rice milling plants, cashew processing facilities, and technical rubber product manufacturers, thereby completing the supply chain.

Mr. Do Viet Phuong cited statistics showing that Cambodia exports approximately over 10 million tons of fresh agricultural products annually, with rice, cashews, cassava chips, and fruits in general accounting for the majority. In its economic management policy, the Royal Cambodian Government in its seventh term focused on attracting investment to develop the processing industry to increase the added value of exports. This has resulted in a significant increase in Cambodia's direct export capacity to other markets in recent years, particularly for products such as rice, cashews, and cassava chips.

Furthermore, improving quality standards and applying preservation and logistics technologies will help Cambodian products access larger markets such as the European Union (EU), the United States, the Middle East, and Northeast Asia. If investment and trade are effectively leveraged, Cambodia can gradually shift from exporting raw materials to exporting high-value-added processed products.

From that perspective, the Head of the Viet Nam Trade Office in Cambodia, Do Viet Phuong, noted that Vietnamese businesses should consider approaching and promoting cooperation for the benefit of both countries and their business communities.

Source: Tin Tuc News