Cashew nuts are processed for export at the Nhat Huy Joint Stock Company, Binh Duong Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Hue

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— Viet Nam expects to gain US$2 billion from cashew exports this year, according to the Viet Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas).

It added that by December 15, the value of cashew exports had increased by 22.6 per cent year-on-year to reach $1.93 billion, reported Vietnam Economic Times newspaper.

Therefore, the association believed that the total cashew export value this year will hit a record high of $2 billion.

The average export price of Vietnamese cashew this year was expected to surge by four per cent to reach $6,536 per tonne against last year.

Vietnamese cashew products are exported to 80 countries and territories in the world. The largest export markets are the United States, China and the Netherlands, accounting for 32.8 per cent, 15 per cent and 11.2 per cent of the total export value respectively.

Vinacas has forecast that Vietnamese cashew exports will increase further by the Lunar New Year in 2015, due to rising demand in the world market, and so the export price will also increase.

However, the association said that the local cashew exporters still face several challenges in production and business, such as high transport fees even though the petrol and diesel prices have been cut, lack of quality control and sluggish supply.

Viet Nam has 465 large, medium and small-scale cashew processing factories.

They often face shortage of raw cashew for export processing due to low output by the local cashew trees, said Vinacas Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh.

The local cashew output was 500,000 tonnes in 2014. The processors had to import 556,000 tonnes of raw cashew in the first 11 months of this year to meet the high demand.

Therefore, Thanh said that the provinces should guide farmers on improving their skills in growing cashew trees for higher output and low production costs in the coming time. — VNS