According to the estimates of the General Statistics Office, in April of 2021, the domestic cashew processing enterprises imported 480,000 tonnes of cashew nuts with a value of 772 million USD, equivalent to the figure of March of 2021, but increased sharply by 375 percent in volume as well as 470.5 percent in value over the same period of 2020.
The amount of imported raw cashew after the first 4 months of 2021 was nearly equal to the total import volume in 2020.
Generally, in the first 4 months of 2021, Vietnam imported a total of nearly 1.2 million tonnes of cashew nuts with a value of up to 1.9 billion USD, an increase of 300 percent in volume and 323.5 percent in value over same period last year. The average import price of raw cashew nuts in the first four months of 2021 was estimated at about 1,580 USD/tonne, up by 5.8 percent over the same period of 2020.

   Thus, the volume of imported raw cashew after the first 4 months of 2021 was nearly equal to the total import in the whole year 2020 (1.45 million tonnes), while the turnover was higher due to the increase in raw material prices.

   The increase in raw cashew imports is partly due to abnormal weather events causing the domestic cashew harvest to come more than a month later and heavy rains in cashew growing provinces such as Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai ... in the right harvest season so the people could not dry cashew nuts, so the quality of cashew nuts was affected.
This is also the reason why the purchasing prices of fresh cashew nuts in the domestic market fluctuate with a slight downward trend. The data from the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development (under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) showed that raw material prices fluctuated from stable to slightly decreased in the past month. Specifically, the dried raw cashew nuts price in Binh Phuoc decreased from 29,500 VND/kg to 24,000 VND/kg; In Dong Nai, the price of dried raw cashew continued to hold at 30,500 VND/kg. Binh Phuoc and some cashew-growing provinces in the Southeast are currently in harvest.
In the recent years, the shortage of domestic raw materials has always been a difficult problem for cashew processing units. In mid-2020, there were many small and medium-sized cashew processing factories that had to suspend production or reduce capacity, do not buy more raw materials because the price of raw cashew is too high compared to the price of cashew that can be sold. Therefore, the increase in raw materials right from the first months of this year showed that businesses have been more proactive about raw materials even when the input price increases and the selling price has not improved much.

   The demand for cashew kernels remained stable, even increased during the Covid-19 epidemic. The consumption of deep processed cashew nuts decreased in hotels and restaurants but increased in supermarkets. Overall, cashew kernel consumption is forecast to increase. This increase, in addition to the reason for storing food to prevent disease, also reflects the trend that has continued from the past 3 years.
Currently, Vietnam alone has used up to 50 percent of the total world raw cashew production (about 4 million tonnes/year). To meet the increasing demand from the consumer market, the Vietnam Cashew Association expects the amount of imported cashew nuts in 2021 to reach 1.8 million tonnes. But with the current growth rate, the number of imports may be higher.

CK
Source: VITIC/congthuong.vn