PHNOM PENH, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia had exported 75,214 metric tons of milled rice to China in the first quarter of 2019, a 59 percent rise over the same period last year, according to an official report released on Wednesday.

China is the biggest buyer of Cambodian rice during the January-March period this year, said the report of the Secretariat of One Window Service for Rice Export, adding that export to China accounted for 44 percent of the country's total rice export.

According to the report, the Southeast Asian country exported a total of 170,821 tons of milled rice in the first three months of this year, up 6 percent over the same period last year.

It showed that the kingdom exported 51,552 tons of milled rice to the European markets during the period, down 33 percent because the European Union imposed earlier this year tariffs on rice going from Cambodia in a bid to curb a surge in rice imports from the kingdom.

Cambodia produces 10.8 million tons of paddy rice last year, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.