Cambodia's apparel exports to ASEAN lag behind pre-COVID figures

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) include Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

It should be noted that apparel trade within the ASEAN nations is very limited as most of the nations are apparel exporters. However, they source raw materials for their garment industries as per their requirements.

According to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro, the nation exported garments worth $268.029 million in 2019, which increased to $292.226 million in 2020. However, disruptions caused by COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions dragged the shipment down to nearly half, at $152.582 million in 2021. After the pandemic, it recovered to $206.944 million in 2022 and further to $219.708 million in 2023. Shipments were valued at $19.378 million in the first month of the current year.

Cambodia's fabric imports from ASEAN nations were noted at $198.021 million in 2023, which is a decline of 15.74 per cent from the shipment of $235.529 million in 2022. The trade was registered at $224.377 million in 2019, slowed down to $205.499 million in 2020, recovered to $237.543 million in 2021, but then slipped to $235.529 million in 2022. In January 2024, Cambodia's fabric imports were valued at $17.606 million.

In 2023, Cambodia's total fabric imports amounted to $4,016 million. Consequently, imports from the ASEAN region accounted for just 5.45 per cent of the total last year. The country imported 99.49 per cent of its fabric from the Asia-Pacific region, which was valued at $3,995.481 million the same year, according to TexPro.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)