According to the latest study of CAP of IPSARD on the role of Vietnam’s cashew nut processing enterprises, cashew production and export in Vietnam is attaining some important advantages under the current strong international demand on cashew nut. These advantages include:
(i) good policies and projections of the government on development of cashew production to the year 2010 and 2020 and cashew nut trade and taxes… All these policies are in reality supporting the expansion of cashew export and bringing about more advantages for cashew processing enterprises.
(ii) a high availability of raw material sources to serve cashew processing since cashew tree is easy to plant and investment for production is much lower than the level made for other crops (such as rubber); and since cashew production requires less labor and is supported by a relatively stable market.
(iii) the combination of mechanized and manually processing forms. The majority of cashew shell separation equipments are domestically manufactured with a low cost, being equivalent to only 25-30% of the cost of the imported one. These equipments are also easy to operate and can return a high rate of nut (as much as 85-90%), which is much higher than the rate of Brazil and India (only 60%). In addition, labor for manually cashew nut processing is much available and can easily meet the requirement of processing enterprises.
(iv) Vietnam’s high quality, tasteful and relatively cheep processed cashew nut which is now winning over the confidence of the international market ...
The above mentioned advantages are boosting Vietnam’s cashew nut production helping the sector to attain an important position in world wide market. In 2006, cashew nut planting area in Vietnam reached 240,000 ha distributed mainly in Central Highland (Tay Nguyen) and East of the South and around 360,000 ha were under the harvest (Source: General Statistic Office, 2007). Vietnam started exporting cashew nut in 1998 and became one of the countries making significant contribution to the growth of the cashew nut sector of the world. At present, Vietnam’s raw cashew nut export value has ranked the second position in the world. There have been currently about 250 cashew nut processors in 23 provinces and cities across the country.
About 164 businesses have engaged in cashew nut export (as said by Ministry of Industry and Trade, 2007) and 26 of which have attained an export turnover of more than 5 million USD per year. There have been also many small and very small cashew exporting units and each is able to export 2-3 containers of kernel cashew each year. 14 enterprises have been given with ISO, GMP, HACCP certificates. Vietnam’s cashew pricing is now much influenced by the price of international market.
However, with the increased competitiveness of cashew processing enterprises of other countries, Vietnam’s cashew enterprises are required to continue upgrading technologies to improve product’s hygiene and safety condition, create a vertical link where domestic producers can access credit and agricultural inputs. On this basic, a direct linkage between material producing areas and processing enterprises can be established and a market and pricing information system be formulated.
