Vietnam earned 104 million USD from exporting 23,000 tonnes of cashew nuts in the first two months of the year, a rise of 6 percent in value and 12 percent in volume over the same period last year.
However, the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) warned cashew exporters of a difficult year as the demand is dropping in a number of major import markets such as the US, Europe and China, lowering the average export price to only 4,200 USD per tonne.
Additionally, total output of raw cashew is predicted to fall to 200,000-250,000 tonnes due to bad weather this year and this means cashew nut export volume will be down to 150,000 tonnes.
In 2008, Vietnam exported 167,000 tonnes of cashew nuts, grossing 920 million USD, becoming the world’s largest cashew nut exporter.