Cambodia sold 2.9 million tonnes of agricultural products to other countries in 2013, helping it reach a GDP growth rate of about seven percent.

The export figure was roughly the same as that of 2012, when agriculture accounted for 27.5 percent of Cambodia’s GDP.

According to newly-released data from the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, last year, the country exported more than one million tonnes of dried cassava, 670,000 tonnes of fresh cassava, 370,000 tonnes of milled rice, 200,000 tonnes of sugar, 160,000 tonnes of maize and about 80,000 tonnes of cashew nuts.

Agriculture remains one of the country’s key economic sectors, with 70 percent of the population being farmers.

Its main agricultural products include rice, maize and soya bean.

In recent years, farmers have moved from growing for domestic consumption to commercialisation to serve exports.-VNA