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Cashew exports increase by 23%
About 100,000 tonnes of cashews worth US$531 million, were exported during the first seven months of this year, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
"Exports increased by 5.38 per cent in terms of volume and 23 per cent in terms of value, when compared to exports from the same period last year," said Nguyen Viet Chien, Director of the ministry's Information and Statistics Centre.
According to the report, 20,000 tonnes of cashews were exported in July that earned $106 million, a year-on-year increase of 25 per cent.
Chien attributed the high export value to a price hike in the world market.
"The price is now about $5,300 per tonne, an increase of 18.6 per cent over the same period last year," Chien said.
The nation's cashew industry has been able to maintain its commercial relations with 78 markets around the globe, including the US, Germany, Australia, UK, China, EU, Russia and Japan.
"Domestic cashew producers have invested more than VND150 billion (US$7.9 million) in technology in order to improve the products' quality," Chien said.
Although a large amount of the commodity has been exported this year, producers are concerned about current cashew yields.
Due to inclement weather, industry experts forecast that the country's cashew yields will produce only 300,000 tonnes of the commodity this year, a decrease of 50,000 tonnes compared with the previous year.
To meet the market's demand, the industry has had to import 60 per cent of its raw cashews from African countries and Indonesia.
"In order to remain as the world's largest exporter of cashews, the country's cashew producers must improve their production techniques," said Le Van Co, director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Forestry Co., Ltd. "They must invest more in new technology."
Nguyen Thai Hoc, chairman of the Viet Nam Cashew Association, said that cashew producers needed to co-operate with farmers when they were buying their raw cashews.
Viet Nam now has 215 cashew producers in the country.
According to the ministry, Viet Nam is the largest exporter of cashews in the world. More than 350,000ha in the country are used to grow cashews, and on average Viet Nam produces 400,000 tonnes of the commodity a year.
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