What do industry businesses do for sustainable development?
Facing many difficulties
According to Mr. Dang Hoang Giang - General Secretary of the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS), in the first 3 months of the year, Vietnam exported 112 thousand tons of cashew kernels, export turnover reached 642.4 million USD, up 4.34 % in quantity and 2.17% in value. However, in terms of average price, it decreased, especially for code 320, it decreased by 5.4% compared to the same period in 2022.
Giang said that the main reason is due to the foreign market, uncertainties during the COVID-19 period, then the Russia-Ukaraine conflict, high global inflation and people of other countries tightening their spending. , reduce consumption. In addition, the price of other nuts such as almonds, walnuts, etc., which compete directly with cashews, are also affected.
“In the first 3 months of 2023, export volume has increased, but not really exciting. In particular, the price of cashew kernels is still low. Meanwhile, the price of cashew oil, the price of cashew shell decreased. Therefore, enterprises have not been able to balance with import prices," said Mr. Giang.
Regarding imports, the General Secretary of VINACAS said, the import volume of raw cashew nuts in shell also increased in the first three months of the year, with 601 thousand tons, worth 788 million USD, up 18% in volume and 5.1% in value. compared with the same period in 2022. The average import price of raw cashew nuts decreased slightly by 11% over the same period. The reason for the increase in imports of raw cashews is that businesses increase their purchases for storage with the expectation that the price of processed cashew kernels will increase at the end of the year.
Particularly for domestic raw cashew production, Mr. Giang said, the total output is expected to reach about 350,000 tons. However, with this output, it only meets about 20% of the demand for processing in Vietnam. Currently, a year, Vietnam has to import over 2 million tons of raw cashew.
“Currently, there are a number of large enterprises in the cashew industry calling for the whole industry to reduce processing capacity to 30%, and some businesses have proposed to consider issues related to importing cashew kernels from Africa into Vietnam. Nam, said Mr. Giang.
Mr. Nguyen Van Giang - Vice Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial Farmers' Association also said that at present, the price of raw cashew nuts in the country is always low for many years, due to the influence of raw materials imported from Africa.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Giang, a number of businesses importing cashew kernels for production have affected the domestic raw cashew price, making it difficult for the domestic raw cashew price to increase, affecting the lives of cashew farmers. Therefore, to increase the income of farmers, the only way is to increase the yield and quality of the products.
“Currently, in Binh Phuoc, authorities at all levels are very interested and have many policies and projects to support farmers in building demonstration models, seed support, and organization. training activities...to help cashew farmers improve yield as well as cashew quality", said Vice Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial Farmers' Association.
In terms of infrastructure, the locality is also interested in investing in rural roads leading to cashew material areas, mobilizing households to grow cashew production in the direction of linking to cooperative groups, to gather and share business. experience as well as signing purchase contracts, input materials and signing contracts to sell products at better and more stable prices.
From a business perspective, Mr. Le Thanh Long - Quality Management Director of Duy Duc - Long An Co., Ltd. said that businesses in the cashew industry are currently facing difficulties because the price of imported raw cashew nuts is high compared to the price of raw cashew nuts. multiplier thing.
According to Mr. Long, if in the past, businesses could take advantage of cashew oil and cashew shell to compensate, now, the price of cashew oil and cashew shell has also decreased a lot, so businesses cannot make up for it. loss.
Besides, businesses are also facing the situation of cashew kernels being imported from Africa to Vietnam. For enterprises that only do the following stages when importing cashew kernels for production, they will have a great competitive advantage compared to other primary producers, because the cost of importing is much lower than that of cashew nut production. rough. Because they import 1 container of cashew kernels, it is equal to other businesses to import 4 containers of raw cashew.
“Therefore, the State needs to have policies to protect the domestic manufacturing industry. Because for end-to-end manufacturing enterprises, to invest in a complete production line from shelling to finishing the finished product, it requires a huge amount of funding and needs a lot of workers," said Mr. Long request.
What to do for sustainable development?
In order for Vietnam's cashew industry in general and cashew businesses in particular to develop sustainably, Mr. Dang Hoang Giang - General Secretary of VINACAS said that businesses need to focus on two factors: people and nature. Regarding people, Mr. Giang said that it is necessary to pay attention to the disadvantaged group of female workers, and the cashew industry is also an industry that uses a lot of female workers.
Regarding the natural factor, Mr. Giang said that sustainable development always comes with environmental protection and ecosystem protection. From the perspective of businesses, environmental protection is from the relevant State regulations on environmental security control in the factory area...
“Currently, the problem of deforestation is being very concerned by customers in Europe. In the future, products derived from deforestation will not be imported into Europe. Therefore, businesses must also pay attention to this issue", VINACAS General Secretary recommended.
Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of Binh Phuoc Farmers' Association Nguyen Van Giang wishes that businesses, especially large enterprises, need to have a strategy to build their own raw material areas for their factories, through the association with cashew farmers.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Giang, the source of imported raw materials is now very abundant, but it is also necessary to have a stable source of raw materials in the country so that when policy issues related to import and export of kernels and raw cashews change. change, have an impact, the enterprise also has a stable raw material area for production.
“From paying attention to the raw material area, supporting farmers to have better conditions to take care of cashews, which will help increase the yield and quality of cashew nuts. The linking of raw material areas also contributes to making the value chain of the cashew industry more sustainable," said Mr. Nguyen Van Giang.
However, Mr. Nguyen Van Giang also acknowledged that, in Binh Phuoc, the link between cashew growers and businesses has only been done about 10-20% of the existing cashew acreage. The rest is still in the way farmers harvest themselves and sell to local purchasing agents. The main reason why the link is not as desired, according to Mr. Giang, is that the price of imported raw cashew nuts is always lower than the domestic price of raw cashew nuts, so businesses are less interested in building their own raw material areas.
Le Thanh Long said that, for sustainable development, businesses need to be assured of output with stable prices, and at the same time, the source of raw materials must also be stable. Only in this way can businesses balance other costs. From there, it is possible to renovate and upgrade the technologies in the factory, as well as increase the welfare conditions for workers.
As for linking with cashew farmers to build their own raw material areas, Mr. Long said, businesses are not without thinking. However, in order to do this, it requires a lot of money as well as a huge workforce. Therefore, it is very difficult to do.
Source : Vinacas
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