Econ
Vietnam plans $10.5 billion in cashew exports by 2030
The cashew industry will restructure to increase its export turnover from last year’s US$3.6 billion to $10.5 billion by 2030.
It is one of the targets set out in the cashew industry development strategy until 2025, with a vision to 2030, which was recently submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) by the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS).
Under the strategy, the industry will also restructure to raise the added value of the intensively processed cashew nut products and byproducts such as cashew nut shell liquid to $7 billion by 2030
The planned area for cashew cultivation is expected to reach 380,000 hectares nationwide by 2025, generating a productivity of two tons of cashew nuts per hectare. Up to 2030, Vietnam will stabilize its cashew growing area at around 400,000 hectares, with an output of 2.2 tons of cashew nuts per hectare.
According to VINACAS, since 2006, Vietnam has risen to become the largest cashew exporter in the world, making the cashew industry among the country’s key farming items with an export turnover of more than $1 billion since 2010.
Vietnam exported $3.62 billion worth of cashew nuts in 2017, the highest value recorded so far, while maintaining its 60 percent market share of the total of global cashew nut export revenues of some $5.5 billion and remaining the world’s No.1 in terms of cashew nut processing and exports.
According to experts, competition in this industry is becoming ever more fierce, with the penetration risks posed by potential opponents, especially those from China, African countries (East Africa and West Africa), and other Southeast Asian nations (Thailand and Cambodia). The consumption demand is increasing with stricter requirements in terms of quality and food safety.
Meanwhile, the industry’s growth is not sustained. It is also being confronted with numerous difficulties, as the growth rate of farming production has yet to keep up with the growth rate of the processing industry. Last year, the output of raw cashews only met about 20 percent of the demand for export processing of businesses.
Since 2014, intensive farming techniques had increased productivity from less than one ton per hectare to 1.2 tons, but it fell again in 2016 and 2017 due to the impacts of drought, unseasonable rains and diseases. The country had 337,143ha under cashew at the end of last year.
There are more than 465 cashew processors with a total capacity of over 1.4 million tons a year, but nearly 70 per cent are small in size.
Experts blamed this on the fact that too many enterprises are involved in exports. Many exporters do not even have processing facilities but buy nuts and export small volumes, creating unhealthy competition and affecting overall exports.
Thus, exports of highly processed cashew accounts for only 5 percent while semi-processed items account for the rest, they said.
The sector faces challenges like low productivity, diseases, unfavorable weather and lack of linkages between production, processing and consumption. Cashew productivity could increase by 30-40 percent if advanced cultivation techniques become widespread.
This is a key requirement to develop the industry though other solutions such as replacing old trees, linking stakeholders in the production chain and increasing the rate of highly processed items should be focused on to enable sustainable development, they said.
Given that fact, VINACAS has consulted with the MARD to consider the issuance of another restructuring project for Vietnam’s cashew industry, which aims to draft a restructuring and development strategy and vision for the cashew sector from now until 2025, with a vision to 2030.
Vietnam exported $3.62 billion worth of cashew nuts in 2017
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The planned area for cashew cultivation is expected to reach 380,000 hectares nationwide by 2025, generating a productivity of two tons of cashew nuts per hectare. Up to 2030, Vietnam will stabilize its cashew growing area at around 400,000 hectares, with an output of 2.2 tons of cashew nuts per hectare.
According to VINACAS, since 2006, Vietnam has risen to become the largest cashew exporter in the world, making the cashew industry among the country’s key farming items with an export turnover of more than $1 billion since 2010.
Vietnam exported $3.62 billion worth of cashew nuts in 2017, the highest value recorded so far, while maintaining its 60 percent market share of the total of global cashew nut export revenues of some $5.5 billion and remaining the world’s No.1 in terms of cashew nut processing and exports.
According to experts, competition in this industry is becoming ever more fierce, with the penetration risks posed by potential opponents, especially those from China, African countries (East Africa and West Africa), and other Southeast Asian nations (Thailand and Cambodia). The consumption demand is increasing with stricter requirements in terms of quality and food safety.
Meanwhile, the industry’s growth is not sustained. It is also being confronted with numerous difficulties, as the growth rate of farming production has yet to keep up with the growth rate of the processing industry. Last year, the output of raw cashews only met about 20 percent of the demand for export processing of businesses.
Since 2014, intensive farming techniques had increased productivity from less than one ton per hectare to 1.2 tons, but it fell again in 2016 and 2017 due to the impacts of drought, unseasonable rains and diseases. The country had 337,143ha under cashew at the end of last year.
There are more than 465 cashew processors with a total capacity of over 1.4 million tons a year, but nearly 70 per cent are small in size.
Experts blamed this on the fact that too many enterprises are involved in exports. Many exporters do not even have processing facilities but buy nuts and export small volumes, creating unhealthy competition and affecting overall exports.
Thus, exports of highly processed cashew accounts for only 5 percent while semi-processed items account for the rest, they said.
The sector faces challenges like low productivity, diseases, unfavorable weather and lack of linkages between production, processing and consumption. Cashew productivity could increase by 30-40 percent if advanced cultivation techniques become widespread.
This is a key requirement to develop the industry though other solutions such as replacing old trees, linking stakeholders in the production chain and increasing the rate of highly processed items should be focused on to enable sustainable development, they said.
Given that fact, VINACAS has consulted with the MARD to consider the issuance of another restructuring project for Vietnam’s cashew industry, which aims to draft a restructuring and development strategy and vision for the cashew sector from now until 2025, with a vision to 2030.
