Although Vietnam has been the world’s leading exporter of cashew nuts for many years, the country has to increase the import of raw materials.
According to statistics from the Customs Department, in the first two months of this year, Vietnam exported nearly 66,400 tons of cashew, worth 455.3 million USD. This was a decrease of 27.4% in volume and 7.4% in value compared to the same period last year.
However, while the prices of raw cashew on the market have increased sharply, Vietnamese enterprises decided to spend up to 10.7 trillion VND (equivalent to 420 million USD) to import 240,000 tons of cashew in just the first two months of 2025. According to data from the Customs Department, the import volume only increased by 7.3% compared to the same period last year, but the value increased by 53.3%.
The gap between imports and exports indicates that the Vietnamese cashew industry is facing significant fluctuations in prices and supply.
Vietnamese enterprises have spent nearly 420 million USD to purchase raw cashew.
One of the notable changes in the cashew market this year is the significant shift in supply. If in previous years, Cambodia was always the largest cashew supplier to Vietnam, now this position has been taken over by Tanzania.
In the first two months of 2025, the import value of cashew from Tanzania increased strongly to 187 million USD, a sudden increase of 175%, nearly three times the figure of 68 million USD during the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, the import value from Cambodia was only 64 million USD, a sharp decrease of 39%.
In addition, imports of cashew from Indonesia have doubled, making this Southeast Asian country the fourth largest supplier to the Vietnamese market.
The change in the import balance from Cambodia to Tanzania and Indonesia is a sign showing that the Vietnamese cashew industry is trying to reduce dependence on a single market, aiming to ensure sustainable development in the future.
In fact, to maintain the position as the world’s No. 1 producer and exporter of cashew nuts for many years, Vietnamese businesses have had to rely on imported raw materials from countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.
In 2024, Vietnam exported about 723,800 tons of cashew nuts, with a turnover of 4.34 billion USD, an increase of 12.4% in volume, and a significant increase of 19.2% in value compared to the previous year. This is a record high since Vietnamese cashews entered the international market.