On 07 April 2022, GIZ Cambodia in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries held the workshop on “Support of German Development Cooperation to the Agriculture Sector of Cambodia”, jointly organised by the Support of Regional Economic Cooperation in Asia (SRECA) project with the General Directorate of Agriculture (GDA). The Workshop was conducted back to back with the dissemination of the updated GDA-SRECA Export Guidelines and the SRECA Tropical Fresh Fruit Exporter’s Guide to China.

The event was presided by H.E. Veng Sakhon, Minister of Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), H.E. Christian Berger, German Ambassador to Cambodia, Dr Günter Riethmacher, Country Director of GIZ Cambodia as well as other distinguished delegates from public and private entities. Overall around 100 participants from relevant Cambodian ministries, government departments, small and medium enterprises, logistics association, traders, and more.

The workshop introduced the aspects of the development cooperation in Cambodia on behalf of the German Government since 1994 regarding the support of social development and economic growth in the country to foster peace, justice, and reconciliation. GIZ in Cambodia is currently working in two main areas: health and social security as well as rural development. The main goal of the event was to dive deeper into German support of the agricultural sector. Several projects, implemented by GIZ, are cooperating with the Cambodian Government in its endeavours to develop and strengthen the agricultural sector. Projects are working with Cambodian partners on various areas in the agricultural value chain.

SRECA is focusing its interventions on facilitating export processes of Cambodian partners to other markets, especially to China as one of the biggest agricultural importers globally. In doing so, SRECA cooperates closely with MAFF-GDA and established multiple agricultural trade related services such as product specific export guidelines to the Chinese market. The recently updated export guidelines for banana, longan and mango were officially disseminated at the workshop together with the “Tropical Fresh Fruit Exporter’s Guide to China”. All documents are available in Khmer to reach also small businesses on the provincial level.

GDA together with SRECA presented the content and use of the different guides. They are distributed to different public and private stakeholders and utilised for training of export oriented Cambodian businesses. Especially Cambodian associations and trade promotion agencies are taking on the role of multipliers to support smaller businesses. The workshop will be followed by further capacity building activities with GDA in 2022. Additionally, the guidelines will be transferred into e-learning modules.