HCM City (VNA) – Although Vietnam is a leadingexporter of cashew nut, the country’s export value remains modest as manyenterprises are still dependent on imported materials.

In 2018, Vietnam’s cashew export revenue hit 3.52 billionUSD, but up to 70 percent of cashew materials for processing were imported,leading to high costs.

According to the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), in2019, Vietnam plans to ship abroad 350,000 tonnes of cashew nuts for about 4billion USD, a lower volume but higher value than the year previous.

By increasing sales of processed products instead of rawcashew, the ratio of processed cashew nuts of Vietnam is expected to rise 30percent, double that of two years ago.

Vinacas General Secretary Dang Hoang Giang said that alongwith improving the quality of processed cashew nut, in June 2019, theassociation will survey the West Asian market, bringing about more choices for exportersin terms of market and product.

Vietnamese cashew is popular in choosy markets such as theUS and the EU, paving the way for domestic exporters to expand markets.

Along with seeking new markets, Vietnam aims to maintainmajor ones such as the Netherlands, China, and especially the US, whichconsumes up to 40 percent of the country’s cashew nuts, said Giang.

He added that the current market trend is products withclear origin, as customers prefer products with strictly controlled quality.

Vinacas Vice President Nguyen Minh Hoa said that to conquer newmarkets, Vietnamese firms should pay greater attention to studying requirementsof the markets to supply suitable products.

Hoa noted that with the acceptation of Vietnamese technologyover the years, African countries have started processing cashew and reducingtheir exports of material cashew. They will be Vietnam’s competitor in the nextfive years.

Amidst the dependence on materials from other countries, it iscrucial for the Vietnamese cashew sector to improve quality to enhancecompetitiveness, he said.

Pham Van Cong, Vinacas President said the association willask for support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in implementing the“Cashew of Vietnam” promotion programme as well as other programmes to assistthe building of Vietnamese cashew trademark and providing information andtechnical support for exporters.

Vinacas will ask the Ministry of Finance to deploy measuresto encourage foreign-invested forms to focus on processing, contributing toincreasing the ratio of processed products.

Although Vietnamese cashew is defined by the InternationalNut and Dried Fruit Council as having higher quality than that of Africancountries and Cambodia, the price of material cashew is not much different thanin other countries.

Therefore, the building of a Vietnamese cashew trademarkshould start by building a trademark for materials.

Cong said Vinacas and the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment have built a set of national criteria for material cashew nuts,which will be issued in 2019 and is expected to reduce problems in the qualityof materials.-VNA