In just two months, Vietnam spent more than 360 million USD to buy cashew nuts, of which imports from Cambodia increased sharply compared to the same period last year. The cashew industry returned to the period of trade deficit after having a trade surplus of nearly 400 million USD in 2022.
According to the General Department of Customs, in the first 2 months of this year, Vietnam imported 272,000 tons of raw cashew nuts, with a value of more than 360 million USD. The result increased by 78.2% in volume and 52.2% in value over the same period in 2022.
In particular, Cambodia continues to be the largest supplier for Vietnam. In the past two months, the value of cashew imports from the country is estimated at nearly 130 million USD, up 75.6% over the same period last year.
In 2022 alone, Vietnam accounted for 98.5% of Cambodia’s cashew exports, equivalent to 660,000 tons, worth more than one billion USD.
Vietnam has a trade deficit of 7 million USD in raw cashew nuts in just 2 months.
On the opposite side, cashew exports in the first 2 months of the year reached only 353 million USD, down 7.4% compared to the same period last year. In two months, the cashew industry has a trade deficit of nearly 7 million USD after the whole year of 2022 with a trade surplus of nearly 400 million USD.
In 2021, Vietnam imported more than 4.1 billion USD of raw cashew, while exports only reached about 3.6 billion USD. This is the first year Vietnam has had a trade deficit during more than 30 years of exporting cashew nuts to the world.
The General Department of Customs at that time assessed that this was an extraordinary situation for the cashew industry. Soon after, this unit discovered a large number of cashew nuts with signs of commercial fraud from Cambodia to Vietnam as imported goods for export production. After detecting the extraordinary, the Customs have investigated and prosecuted two related cases and are simultaneously inspecting the shipments.
Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS) assessed that the production and supply of cashew globally as well as domestically are facing many difficulties. Cashew consumption in the world market decreased. VINACAS proposed to adjust the export target in 2023 to 3.1 billion USD, which is only up about 30 million USD compared to 2022.
Currently, the growing area of cashew in Vietnam is only about 300,000 ha, providing about 30% of raw materials for the processing needs of enterprises. Therefore, VINACAS has proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development assess and plan cashew-growing areas in a long term. In the difficult situation of increasing the domestic area, VINACAS proposed solutions to cooperate in exploiting and developing cashew material areas in Cambodia and Southern Laos./.