98.5% of Cambodia's cashew exports are sold to Vietnam
Cambodian raw cashew nut is one of the main sources of cashew nut processing in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia cited a report by the Cambodia Cashew Association that in 2022, the country exported 670,000 tons of raw cashew nuts to the international market worth 1.07 billion USD in 2022, down 34.65 %. Notably, up to 98.5% of Cambodia's cashew exports are sold to Vietnam, equivalent to 660,000 tons, worth more than 1 billion USD.
The report also said that last year Cambodia issued a national policy on cashew nuts with the following objectives: improving production productivity and cashew quality to improve competitiveness; promote industrialization to increase post-harvest and processing value by 25% by 2027 and boost exports through market diversification.
Currently, Vietnam's cashew growing area is only about 300,000 hectares, providing about 30% of raw materials for the processing needs of businesses.
From the trade deficit story, it shows that Vietnam's cashew industry has a big contradiction that needs to be resolved: the processing stage is developing strongly, the global market is open, and Vietnam's cashew nuts have good quality to the top of the world. world but only meet a very small part for processing.
This contradiction is explained by the fact that the cashew nut processing industry develops too quickly with the processing capacity of the cashew industry while the domestic supply is about 30%, so every year Vietnam needs to import millions of tons of raw cashews.
Recently, the cashew acreage has shrunk, many large raw material areas are no longer available because of the competition of other crops with higher economic efficiency.
Therefore, the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) has proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to organize the assessment, stable and long-term planning of cashew growing areas.
In difficult conditions to increase the domestic area, Vinacas proposed a solution to cooperate in exploiting and developing cashew material areas in Cambodia and Southern Laos.