Garment industry, Cambodia's largest income earner, reported a 22-percent increase in exports in the first nine months of 2013, showed the data of the Ministry of Commerce released on Tuesday.

During the January-September period this year, the country had exported garment products in equivalent to $4.2 billion, up 22 percent from the $3.44 billion over the same period last year, the data said.

Cambodian apparels are mostly sold to the United States and European countries, with some to Canada, Japan, South Korea and China.

The sector accounted for about 80 percent of the country's total exports, it said.

It comprises about 500 factories with some 510,600 workers. A worker's monthly minimum wage is $80.

In 2012, the Southeast Asian nation made $4.6 billion from garment exports, the Ministry said.