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Vietnam expects to earn US$1 billion from cashew nut exports
Vietnam is likely to achieve its target of earning US$1 billion from cashew nut exports in 2008, said Nguyen Duc Thanh, acting president of the Vietnam Cashew Nut Association (VINACAS) at a press briefing in Ho Chi Minh City on Sept. 6.
He said that the country exported 109,000 tonnes of cashew nuts in the past eight months, earning US$597 million, and is expected to ship a total of more than 160,000 tonnes this year.
According to Mr Thanh, at present there is an increasing demand for cashew nuts on the global market and a shortage of this product may occur by the end of this year going into next year. VINACAS proposed that businesses maintain its current volume of reserves and only import unprocessed nuts when they have profitable export contracts. The association will ask the Government to reduce import tax on unprocessed cashew nuts and establish a national cashew reserve to support small and medium sized enterprises in case of global market fluctuations.
Currently, Vietnam has more than 300,000 tonnes of unprocessed cashew nuts in storage. However, cashew nut processing businesses imported about 200,000 tonnes and plan to import an additional 50,000 tonnes in the remaining months of this year in order to ensure adequate supplies.
VOV
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