It is expected that the world’s demand for cashew will increase by 10% annually, while cashew currently hold the largest share in world’s nut and dried fruit market with total value of US$30 billion per year, informed International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC).
Vietnam is world's leading cashew exporter.
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However, it is worth mentioning that export volume of cashew in 2017 is equivalent to just 50% of 2016. In addition to technical difficulties, cashew output faced challenge from bad weather.
Vietnam’s cashew export in 2017 worth US$3.5 billion gave mixed responses from the business community, as trade volume increased by 2% but value up 24% compared to last year.
“The average export price of cashew is US$10,000 per tons, but if the price is too high, customers will eventually move on to other kind of nuts” concerned Nguyen Duc Thanh, Chairman of Vinacas.
While for other processing industries, main challenges come from distribution channel, but for cashew, the most concerning issue would be raw materials. Though it is the world’s top cashew exporter, Vietnam imports 1 million tons of cashew nuts out of 1.4 million tons of raw materials every year for processing.
In domestic market, price for raw materials is 30% higher than that of some years ago. “In 2017, Vietnam has processed over 1.6 million tons, but domestic supply can only provide 220,000 tons, for which the remaining have to be imported”, said sources from Vinacas.
Currently, the majority of raw materials is imported from African countries, informed Vinacas. In which, Ivory Coast accounted for 35% of total raw materials exporting to Vietnam.
However, transaction with African market is posing high risk. Previously, some cases reported African partner requested Vietnamese enterprises to pay 10% contract’s value in advance, but then the deal was never materialized.
Moreover, there are also issues with regard to quality consistency, resulting in 5 – 7% of imported amount damaged. It thus poses the question of reduce its dependence on African suppliers.
In the upcoming time, Vietnam’s cashew industry set focus on cooperating with Cambodia in large scale planting cashew program. As such, Vinacas will support Cambodia selecting seedling, technology transfer and distributing.
At present, Cambodia accounts for 7% of Vietnam’s total raw cashew nut import. However, if the Cambodia’s plan to achieve the target of producing 1 million tons of raw cashew in the next 10 years going on right track, while Vietnam can complete the objective of having 50,000 hectare for cashew growing area, there will be enough supply for Vietnam’s cashew industry.
