Bicycle export earns $278M in first eight months
Bicycle export earns $278M in first eight months
Cambodia exported $278 million worth of bicycles including electric bicycles in the first eight months of this year, a 30 percent decrease year-on-year compared to the same period last year, a report by the General Department of Customs and Excise showed.
The global economic slowdown has caused consumer spending on non-essential items such as bicycles leading to a decline in the country’s bicycle exports, said Penn Sovicheat, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Commerce.
“Cambodia’s bicycle exports remain the leading in the region despite the declining value of bicycle exports,” Sovicheat told Khmer Times.
Cambodia is one of the top five exporters of bicycles in the world. Bicycles have become one of Cambodia’s key manufacturing products for exports after clothes, footwear and travel goods, agricultural products and electronic equipment.
The bicycles are assembled only in the special economic zones in Bavet, Svay Rieng province, which shares a border with Vietnam.
Currently, five companies assemble bicycles for export. They are Evergrand Bicycle (Cambodia), Speedtech Industrial Co Ltd, Smart Tech (Cambodia) Co Ltd, A and J (Cambodia) Co Ltd and XDS Bicycle (Cambodia) Co Ltd.
Minister of Commerce Cham Nimul chaired a meeting held in September with the participation of companies that manufacture and export bicycles in Cambodia.
The meeting was held to review, address challenges and coordinate export procedures to enhance competitiveness and drive the growth of bicycle exports from Cambodia.
The European Union, a major market for Cambodian bicycles, has been particularly affected by economic pressures, leading to reduced demand for imports.
Cambodia exports bicycles to foreign markets such as the EU and the US under free trade agreements and other trade deals, besides under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) and Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) schemes.
In 2023, EU imports of both electric and non-electric bicycles stood at €1.98 billion, a 21 percent decline compared to 2022, according to a report from Eurostat on June 3, 2024.
Cambodia is the second biggest supplier of bicycles to the EU. Its imports of non-electric bicycles came mainly from Taiwan (32 percent of all imports) and Cambodia (28 percent), followed by China and Bangladesh in 2023.
