Citing a report from the Cambodia Cashew Association, the Vietnam Trade Office in Cambodia said that the country has become the second largest producer of raw cashew nuts in the world, with a total output of 830,000 tons in the first 7 months of 2024.

According to preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs, by the end of July this year, our country had spent more than 1 billion USD to import nearly 786,530 tons of raw cashew nuts from Cambodia, a sharp increase of 34.1% in volume and 26.3% in value over the same period in 2023.

Cambodian cashew nuts accounted for 47.2% of the total import turnover of our country's cashew industry, an increase of 9.6 percentage points over the same period last year.

Notably, with an import figure of nearly 786,530 tons, Vietnam purchased nearly 95% of Cambodia's raw cashew nut output in the first 7 months of this year.

In recent years, the Cambodian cashew industry has developed at a dizzying speed, becoming the largest supplier to Vietnam.

To promote sustainable development of the cashew industry, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Cham Nimul recently chaired the first meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee to Monitor and Evaluate the Implementation of the National Cashew Policy 2022-2027.

The policy, launched in June last year, aims to develop cashew production, processing and marketing to be more competitive, sustainable and diversified, and to position Cambodia as a significant producer and supplier of cashew nuts locally, regionally and globally.

Cambodia is working to assert its position as a leading cashew nut producer and exporter through the National Cashew Nut Policy 2022-2027. The country also aims to boost cashew nut production, develop processing facilities, diversify export markets, and simplify trade facilitation programs.

Through the new policy, Cambodia's processing capacity is expected to increase from 5% to 25% by 2027 and at least 50% by 2032. However, Cambodia needs an additional investment of about US$329 million to implement the National Cashew Policy 2022-2027 to develop infrastructure.

In contrast to Cambodia, Vietnam is the world's leading country in the production and export of cashew nuts. In the first 8 months of this year, our country exported about 478,000 tons of cashew nuts, earning more than 2.77 billion USD, up 22.9% in volume and 21.7% in value over the same period in 2023.

Mr. Pham Van Cong, Chairman of the Vietnam Cashew Association, pointed out the paradox that domestic raw materials for processing only meet a small part of the demand, while the rest depends on imported raw cashews, including a large amount from neighboring Cambodia.

In recent years, along with Africa, Cambodia has also advocated developing domestic processing industry, gradually reducing raw exports. These countries have introduced many preferential policies, attracting investment in cashew processing factories; for raw cashew exports, they impose strict regulations and monitor minimum selling prices; impose high export tax rates on raw cashews, but exempt tax on exported cashew nuts.

Accordingly, the Vietnam Cashew Association has warned that if our country cannot proactively supply raw materials, its position as the world's number 1 exporter could be shaken.

The leader of the Vietnam Cashew Association said that, in the difficult condition of increasing the area, Vietnamese cashew enterprises can cooperate, exploit and develop the cashew material areas in Cambodia and Southern Laos, including cooperation in research, transfer of varieties and cultivation techniques to the neighboring countries. After that, enterprises will import this raw cashew source to Vietnam for processing.

Spending 2.3 billion USD to import cashews, farmers cut down cashew trees to plant durian, the minister felt bitter . Due to the shortage of supply, Vietnam had to spend nearly 2.3 billion USD to import cashews in the past 7 months. But when asking and receiving the answer from farmers about the reason for cutting down cashew trees to plant durian, Minister Le Minh Hoan felt bitter.