PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s bicycle export fell 43 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2024, said a General Department of Customs and Excise’s report on Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian country exported bicycles, including electric bicycles, worth US$96.9 million during the January-March period this year, a decrease of 43 per cent from US$170 million over the same period 2023.

Ministry of Commerce’s Secretary of State and spokesperson Penn Sovicheat said the made-in-Cambodia bicycles had been shipped mainly to European countries, the United States, Britain and Canada, among others.

“The drop was due to global economic slowdown and uncertainties that had resulted in a plunge in purchase orders,“ he told Xinhua.

Sovicheat said bicycles are one of Cambodia’s major manufacturing products for exports after garments, footwears, and travel goods.

There are currently five bicycle factories in the kingdom, all of them are located in special economic zones in Svay Rieng Province’s Bavet City on the border with Vietnam.