Cashew production for export (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The cashew sector enjoyed sharp year-on-year risesin export volume and value in the first three months of this year at 31 percentand 43.6 percent respectively thanks to higher quality and price.
In the first quarter, 73,000 tonnes of cashew were shipped abroad for739 million USD. In March alone, 26,000 tonnes were exported with revenue of265 million USD.
The US, China and the Netherlands remained the biggest import marketswith respective market shares of 30.5 percent, 16.8 percent and 14.3 percent.
Apart from a fall in the Australian market, all other markets saw anupturn.
However, Dang Hoang Giang, Vice President of the Vietnam CashewAssociation (Vinacas), said the results do not reflect developments of cashewexports for the whole year, as higher demand in the Lunar New Year in Februarysharply impacted cashew sales in the first quarter.
Along with the rise in export volume, the price of cashew also increased12.5 percent over the same period in 2017 to reach 10,261 USD per tonne.
Giang held there are good signs for cashew prices for the rest of theyear. Meanwhile, Vinacas will increase exports of processed products for higheradded value.
In the future, cashew export volume may fall, but value will continuerising, he asserted, adding that total export turnover this year is expected tobe equal to that of 2017 at 3.62 billion USD.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, the country imported nearly 200,000 tonnes of cashew worth 460million USD in the first quarter of 2018, up nearly 20 percent in volume and 33percent in value over the same period last year.
Giang explained that a lot of cashew was imported to Vietnam in theperiod following contracts signed in 2017. Therefore, the volume does notreflect Vietnam’s demand in the period or influence the sector’s targets.-VNA
VNA
