Cashews: Vietnam dependent on RCN imports

HANOI. After Vietnam's import of raw cashew nuts increased massively in the last ten years, imports have declined due to the Ukraine war. A similar picture is emerging for exports.

Only 30% of RCN from their own country

Although Vietnam is the largest exporter of processed cashews, only 30% of the RCN are harvested domestically. Vietnam imported a total of 1.4 million mt of raw cashew nuts in the first nine months of 2022. Major sourcing countries include Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, as well as Cambodia and Indonesia. However, the difficult geopolitical situation has caused Vietnamese imports to fall by almost 36% year-on-year. 2021 was a record year with 2.9 million mt of imported raw nuts - for comparison, compared to 2011, the first year in which official customs import data were published, they increased 74-fold in 2021.

Exports also down

Exports are also showing a decline. Liem states that Vietnam has been the world's largest exporter of cashew kernels for 15 years, accounting for 80% of global shipments. However, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine and high energy costs are causing various problems for exports. For this reason, Vietnamese cashew exports have fallen 11% so far this year compared to 2021, and only amount to 380,536 mt. Particularly sharp declines were recorded in shipments to Ukraine (-82.1%), Russia (-34.1%), China (-31%) and the USA (-19%).