Cashew exports in the first eight months of this year increased 6 percent in volume but dropped 13.5 percent in value over the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Cashew Association.

The nation exported 115,000 tonnes of cashew since the beginning of the year to earn 527 million USD.

The average cashew export price for August was 4,861 USD per tonne, which was 1,321 USD lower than the same period last year. The price was the same as in July, and 3.15 USD higher than in June.

By the end of the year, the price was expected to increase because the current cashew crop was poor, while global demand for the product stayed the same.

If this occurs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would not encourage export of cashew in order to keep enough raw cashews for domestic processing, as well as have policies to encourage the import of raw cashews.
In August, the export volume was 20,000 tonnes, earning 95 million USD. This marked the sixth month of volume increase since early of this year.

During the first eight months, the US was the largest export market of Vietnamese cashews with an export volume of 8,549 tonnes, for a profit of 40 million USD. This represents a year-on-year increase of 27 percent in volume and 3.55 percent in value to that market.

The second and third largest export markets of Vietnamese cashews were the Netherlands and China , respectively./.