Vietnam owns a series of billion-dollar agricultural products ranked high in the world, such as rice, coffee, rubber, pepper, and cassava. Notably, cashew nuts are a key export item of Vietnam, which has maintained the No. 1 position in the world for 16 consecutive years in terms of cashew kernel exports and accounts for nearly 80% of the total global production.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2018, Vietnam produced about 2.66 million tons of cashew nuts, an increase of 23% compared to 2017. This is 3.4 times more than India, the world’s second-largest producer with 790,000 tons of production. This helps Vietnam become the cashew king of the world.
However, Vietnam is heavily dependent on importing raw cashew nuts from many suppliers around the world. Cashew processing plants in Vietnam need to import more than 3 million tons of raw cashew, of which about 2.2 million tons are from Africa, mainly West Africa. Domestic supply is only 10%.
Vietnam is currently the world’s leading exporter of cashew nuts.
According to the General Department of Customs, Vietnam’s cashew nut imports in July 2024 reached 291,413 tons with a value of more than 346 million USD, up 1.9% in volume and 7% in value compared to the last month.
In the first 7 months of the year, Vietnam imported more than 1.7 million tons of cashew nuts with a value of more than 2.1 billion USD, up 2.5% in volume and 0.6% in value compared to the same period in 2023.
In terms of market, Cambodia was the largest supplier of cashew nuts of Vietnam in the first 7 months of the year, with more than 786,000 tons. The turnover reached 1.01 billion USD, up 34% in volume and 26% in value compared to the same period last year. Worth mentioning, the price is cheaper than in the last year with 1,287 USD/ton, corresponding to a decrease of 6%.
In addition to Cambodia, Ivory Coast and Ghana are two African countries that are currently major suppliers of cashew nuts to Vietnam.
Specifically, Vietnam’s second-largest supplier is Ivory Coast, with more than 325,000 tons and a turnover of more than 368 million USD, down 20.5% in volume and 22% in value compared to last year. The average price reached 1,134 USD/ton, down 2.7% and significantly cheaper than the import price from Cambodia.
Ghana ranked third with more than 201,000 tons, worth more than 222 million USD, up 13% in volume and 12% in value compared to the same period last year. The average price reached 1,104 USD/ton, down 2% over the same period and nearly 10% lower than Cambodia’s price.
Besides, Vietnam also imports cashew nuts from some other countries on this continent, such as Nilgeria and Tanzania, but this only accounts for a very small market share.
Immediately after the 2024 cashew harvest, domestic and import prices of raw cashew nuts increased sharply. The reason for the high price of cashew nuts is due to the sharp decrease in supply when the area of this crop is increasingly shrinking.
In 2023, Vietnam brought in more than 3.6 billion USD from cashew nut exports with 644,135 tons, a sharp increase of 24% in volume and 18.1% over the last year.
In 2024, Vietnam aims to export 3.8 billion USD of cashew nuts (about 200 million USD higher than in 2023).
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the export of cashew nuts in 2024 still has a lot of room for growth. However, the cashew industry is facing problems with raw materials, production costs, and the wave of shift to green production. Therefore, businesses need to actively update market developments and improve quality to maintain export momentum.