Cambodia’s earnings from exports of apparel and accessories in the first eight months of 2022 were up by 28 per cent.

These accounted for 41 per cent of total January to August exports, inching up by just 0.81 percentage points year-on-year.However, although exports in August alone were up 0.46 per cent year-on-year, this represents a 23 per cent drop from July’s figure, which had risen 27.82 per cent over June.

The uptick in garment exports has been credited to relatively normal production in the country as exporters elsewhere face Covid-linked disruptions.

But the industry in Cambodia has started seeing a reduction in orders last month, reversing a seven-month long trend of increases, due to global economic uncertainty and a slew of other hurdles.This situation is expected to prolong until the end of the year or longer. The garment sector’s top markets are, in order, the US, EU, Japan, Canada and the UK. However the situation in EU is not good at the moment. So orders in general for Cambodia will not see positive results in the second half.

Last year, Cambodia’s exports of apparel and clothing accessories rose by eight per cent over the figure logged in 2020.