Cashew processing (Source :VNA)HCM City (VNA) - The Vietnamese cashew sector expects to pocket 2.5 billion USD from exports in 2015.
At the seventh International Cashew Conference - Vietnam 2015 held in Ho Chi Minh City on November 23, Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh said that most major agricultural products are seeing declines, but this sector has enjoyed high growth.
Vietnam will continue to maintain its market share of over 50 percent of the globe’s cashew nuts. It is also the 10th consecutive year the country has topped the world’s cashew exporters list, Thanh added.
In the first 10 months of the year, the sector shipped 272,000 tonnes of cashew nuts, earning an export turnover of 1.97 billion USD, up six percent in volume and 18 percent in value compared with the same period last year.
Despite achieving significant progress on the international market, the sector has continued facing big challenges such as the dependence on imported materials.
Vietnam produces about 1.3 million tonnes of cashew nuts a year, but the country can only supply 500,000 tonnes of raw materials and imports the rest from Africa and Cambodia.
Vinacas has introduced several programmes to support the sector, organised meetings with foreign material suppliers, and coordinated with the US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to examine cashew processing factories to ensure nut quality for export.-VNA
