Workers process cashew for export (Photo: VNA) The volume neared the total posted in 2020, of 1.45million tonnes, and at the current rate this year’s imports could exceed the1.8 million tonnes planned by the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS).
VINACAS attributed the surge in raw cashewimports over recent months to the fact that exports have maintained stablegrowth while domestic supply has been lacking.
Abnormal weather conditions also resulted in theharvest being one month later than usual. Heavy rains during the harvest seasonin cashew farming centres like the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc and DongNai also hampered the drying process, thus affecting quality, the associationadded.
Businesses said they have faced a shortage of rawmaterials in recent years and to ensure supply for export processing have hadto increase imports even though import prices are rising.
Cambodia is currently the largest supplier ofraw cashews to Vietnam, making up 60 percent of the total. Imports from Africancountries such as Tanzania, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria have also risensharply over recent months.
While import prices of raw cashews hailing frommost foreign suppliers went down during the first four months, the price ofunprocessed nuts from Cambodia soared 26.2 percent year-on-year.
As Cambodia’s raw cashews accounts for themajority of the volume imported into Vietnam, the average import price reached1,580 USD per tonne in the four-month period, up 5.8 percent year-on-year.
Explaining the rising import volume fromCambodia, one processing company in Binh Phuoc said the transportation ofcashews harvested in the previous crop has encountered certain difficultiessince late 2020, including a shortage of cargo containers and higher seafreight costs. Meanwhile, Cambodia has finished harvesting its new crop and itscashews can be easily delivered to Vietnam by road.
Also, the company noted, as African countrieshave only recently completed their harvest and their exporters are still preparingtheir packaging and making customs declarations, cashews from the continentwon’t arrive until the latter half of May.
According to the African Cashew Alliance, globalcashew demand will continue growing strongly in 2021, especially in Europe and theUS, which recorded growth rates of 17 percent and 8 percent, respectively, incashew consumption last year despite COVID-19.
In the first four months of 2021, Vietnam earned894 million USD from shipping 152,000 tonnes of cashew nuts abroad, down 7.4 percentin value but up 8.6 percent in volume year-on-year.
The country remains the world’s leading cashewexporter, but falling export prices are likely to lower profit margins, VINACASpredicted./.
VNA
