Sunday, 11 January 2009

Cambodian garment industry eyes Japan as alternative market

Source: Xinhua
01-09-2009

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Japan might become the alternative market for the garment producers of Cambodia, as the demand of traditional purchasers has sharply sagged, Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial News reported on Friday.

"Currently, Japanese orders are few, because their quality demand is so high that we can hardly meet it," said Van Sou Ieng, chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Federation of Textiles and Apparel (AFTEX), which was held here on Thursday.

Fortunately, Japanese buyers have already listed some proposals that can help Cambodia improve product quality, he said.

The United States, as the largest buyer of Cambodian garment products, may need 2 to 3 years to cope with its economic recession, so it has become ever more urgent for Cambodian garment producers to find new markets, he said.

The garment export of Cambodia went down by 2 percent in 2008 over 2007.

Previous local reports have contributed it to the withering demand of traditional client countries.

Around 70 percent of Cambodia's garment products were sold to the United States, 4 percent to Canada and the rest mainly to European countries.

The export volume of the garment industry used to account for over 70 percent of the kingdom's total annual export volume.

In 2007, garment export earned 2.93 billion U.S. dollars for Cambodia, according to official figures.

Editor:Qin Yongjing

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