Vietnam : Cashew exports hit record high of over $3.5 billion
The export turnover of 353,000 tonnes of cashew in 2017 touched 3.52 billion USD, the highest level ever recorded, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The figure represents a 23.8 percent rise compared to the value in 2016.
The largest consumers of Vietnamese cashew were the US, the Netherlands and China with market shares of 35 percent, 15.6 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively.
Strong growth in export revenue was seen in Russia (56.3 percent), the Netherlands (44.7 percent), Thailand (41.4 percent), the US (27 percent), the UK (24.8 percent) and Israel (13.5 percent).
Exported cashew prices experienced a spike spurred by increasing demand but limited supply. The price of processed cashew nut surged 22.3 percent year on year to more than 9,900 USD per tonne.
Due to unfavourable weather conditions which hurt cashew production, domestic businesses spent 2.53 billion USD on imports of 1.28 million tonnes of raw cashew from Africa, Cambodia and Laos to meet export requirements.
In the last five years, Vietnam has become the world’s leading cashew processing centre with 1.6-1.7 million tonnes of raw cashew compared to 3.4 million tonnes worldwide.
To reduce heavy reliance on cashew imports from African countries at high prices, Vietnam decided to invest in cashew cultivation in Cambodia, said Nguyen Duc Thanh, Chairman of the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS).
Earlier, the VINACAS provided 1.5 billion USD (66,000 USD) to the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to grow one million cashew trees on 500,000 hectares