T&T Group purchases Ivory Coast’s entire stock of raw cashew nuts

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s multi-sector T&T Group has purchased the Ivory Coast’s entire stock of raw cashew nuts, or 150,000 tonnes, under a contract signed with the African country late last month.

The major deal comes after the group’s world-record purchase of 176,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts from Tanzania last year.

A portion of the imported nuts will be processed by the T&T Group for export, while the remainder will be distributed to other domestic producers.

The purchase is expected to help stabilise prices and fuel the growth of cashew nut processing in Vietnam.

Cooperation with the T&T Group brings opportunities and timely support to cashew nut exporters in the Ivory Coast, according to Adama Coulibaly, Director General of the Ivory Coast Cashew & Cotton Council.

Tanzania and the Ivory Coast are now Vietnam’s main suppliers of raw cashew nuts.

The T&T Group has been the country’s biggest trader of cashew nuts, importing raw products and re-exporting processed products. It traded more than 260,000 tonnes with foreign partners last year, accounting for roughly 13 percent of Vietnam’s total.

In the first seven months of this year it imported and exported close to 337,000 tonnes, or more than 40 percent of the volume nationally.

It plans to import an additional 120,000 to 150,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts by the end of this year.

The group is committed to building a processing facility in the Ivory Coast, with a designed capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts per year./.