Cashew processing for exports. (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s cashew nut exports are forecast to surpass the3 billion USD benchmark for the first time in 2017 thanks to increasing shipmentsin the first ten months of the year.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, cashew nuts rakedin 2.87 billion USD from 289,000 tonnes, down 0.4 percent in volume but up 23.1percent in value.
With this growth, the country’s exportrevenue of cashew nuts is likely to hit some 3.4-3.5 billion USD in 2017.
The result is spurred by a surge in both prices and demands. Vietnamexperienced a poor cashew crop during 2016-2017 with productivity of 250,000tonnes, thus cashew nuts has been sold at higher prices, average 9,909 USD pertonnes in nine-month period ending in September, an increase of 25.1 percentyear on year.
Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacash) Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh said thatexport prices of cashew nuts in the nine months reached a record high,resulting in significant growth in export revenue from key markets like the US(34.7 percent), the Netherlands (45.2 percent), China (9.1 percent) and the UK(4.6 percent).
Notably, Vietnamese cashew nuts have captured a lion’s share of the US market with73.7 percent and the Netherlands with 65.2 percent, he noted.
Despite a considerable increase in cashew nut prices, demands for the productare growing. The International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC) said thatglobal cashew nut demands rose 6.1 percent per year while cashew productivityonly picked up 3.5 percent per year.
Thanh said that it is crucial to develop a national brand for Vietnamese cashewnuts, given that although Vietnamese cashew exports occupied half of theworld’s volume and value, foreign consumers believed that all cashew productsare originated from India.-VNA
VNA
