Who are the two biggest importers of Vietnam’s cashew?
Who are the two biggest importers of Vietnam’s cashew?
Cashew nut exports in the first half of 2022 faced many difficulties due to reduced consumption, small orders, etc, but still, retain an important role in major markets such as the US and China.
According to data from the General Department of Customs, in June 2022, cashew nut exports were estimated at nearly US$285 million, down 6.9% in volume and 6.5% in value compared to May 2022. Accumulating 6 months, cashew nut exports are estimated at more than 1.5 billion USD, down 9.2% over the same period in 2021.
According to the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), Vietnam is currently the number 1 supplier of cashew nuts to the US and China, and Vietnam’s cashew nut market share in these two markets has gone up.
Specifically, data from the US International Trade Commission shows that in the first 6 months of the year, the US imported 80,000 tons of cashew nuts, equivalent to US$ 521 million, up 4% in volume and 8.5% in value compared to the same period in 2021.
Vietnam’s cashew nut market share in total US imports increased from 88.3% in the first 6 months of 2021 to 89.9% in the first 6 months of 2022.
In contrast, the cashew nut market share of Brazil and India in total US imports decreased, from 3.8% and 1.9% in the first 6 months of 2021 to 2.2% and 1% respectively in the first 6 months of 2022.
According to the Chinese Customs, the cashew nut imports of this market in the first 6 months of the year reached 141.5 million USD, up 134% over the same period in 2021, In which, Vietnam is the largest source of cashew nuts for China with US$125 million, up 146% over the same period in 2021. Vietnam’s cashew nut market share in China’s total import value increased from 83.7% in the first 6 months of 2021 to 88.2% in the first 6 months of 2022.
Market current situation
The market is still weak and there is not much buying demand. According to the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS), it is very difficult to consume cashew kernels due to influences from the destination markets this year. Currently, inflation in countries has reached a very high level compared to the previous period.
With the current price of all items being so expensive, people have to spend more money on essential needs, which leads to non-essential items such as cashews being consumed slowly and the price of cashews is also very low and difficult to increase at this time.
PEPPER OUTPUT TO REACH 200,000 TONNES THIS YEAR
Việt Nam’s pepper output this year would reach around 200,000 tonnes, according to the International Pepper Community (IPC).
Output of black pepper was forecast at 175,000 tonnes, while the remainder would be white pepper.
The IPC also predicted the pepper output of the world’s biggest exporters such as Việt Nam, Brazil, Indonesia and India in 2019 would be lower than last year.
The Import-Export Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said up to 95 per cent of Việt Nam’s pepper output was exported.
Experts said local pepper producers and exporters should associate and connect with international customers to expand their consumption markets as well as improving pepper quality.
In the first month of the year, pepper export volume hit 15,000 tonnes worth US$46 million, posting 19.6 per cent and 13.5 per cent increases in terms of quantity and value from the previous month.
The average export price last month was US$3,067 per tonne, falling 5 per cent from December 2018 and 23.5 per cent from the same period last year.
The department said the pepper price in the Central Highland province of Tây Nguyên and the southern region was VNĐ46,000 per kilo – the lowest level in the past 10 years. — VNS
CASHEW PRICE TO RECOVER THIS YEAR
Cashew prices are expected to recover this year on the global market and producers should promote cooperation to remain stable.
Experts spoke at an international conference on the cashew industry held in Huế from March 1-3 to promote close and long-term relationships between cashew companies and create a basis for establishing trade between parties this year.
R K Dhoodes, chairman of the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPC) said annual consumption of cashew nuts has increased sharply, meaning good news for the global cashew industry.
He predicted demand will continue to rise so prices will also surge.
The CEPC chairman said in the future there should be a common institution for controlling trade activities to ensure parties respect contracts. Prices must be fair to ensure all parties benefit in the value chain.
During the conference, the Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas) and the CEPC held talks about promoting cooperation in stabilising cashew prices this year.
The cooperation between Vinacas and CEPC, representatives of the two largest cashew processing countries in the world – India and Việt Nam, is necessary to gradually stabilise the market and ensure benefits in the global value chain this year and beyond.
Also at the conference, participants asked African countries to control the quality of exported cashews this year.
The conference forecasted that global raw cashew output this year is about 4 million tonnes (or 1 million tonnes of processed cashew), including over 2 million tonnes in Africa and the remainder from other countries including India, Việt Nam, Indonesia and Cambodia.
The conference this year attracted 300 businesses from Việt Nam and other countries. The annual event was under the national trade promotion programme and showed achievements and innovations in food safety and hygiene technology of Việt Nam’s cashew industry.
VN exports
According to the Vinacas, this year, Việt Nam plans to ship 350,000 tonnes of cashew nuts for about US$4 billion, a lower volume but higher value than last year.
By increasing sales of processed products instead of raw cashew, the ratio of processed cashew nuts of Việt Nam is expected to rise 30 per cent, double that of two years ago.
Vinacas general secretary Đặng Hoàng Giang said that along with improving the quality of processed cashew nut, in June 2019, the association will survey the West Asian market, bringing about more choices for exporters in terms of market and product.
Vietnamese cashew is popular in demanding markets such as the US and the EU, paving the way for domestic exporters to expand markets.
Along with seeking new markets, Việt Nam aims to maintain major ones such as the Netherlands, China, and especially the US, which consumes up to 40 per cent of the country’s cashew nuts, said Giang.
He added that the current market trend is products with clear origin, as customers prefer products with strictly controlled quality.
Vinacas Vice President Nguyễn Minh Họa said that to conquer new markets, Vietnamese firms should pay greater attention to studying requirements of the markets to supply suitable products.
Họa noted that with the use of Vietnamese technology over the years, African countries have started processing cashew and reducing their exports of raw cashew. They are expected to compete with Việt Nam in the next five years.
With dependence on materials from other countries, it is crucial for the Vietnamese cashew sector to improve quality to enhance competitiveness, he said.
Vinacas chairman Phạm Văn Công said the association will ask for support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in implementing the “Cashew of Vietnam” promotion programme as well as other programmes to assist in the building of Vietnamese cashew trademark and providing information and technical support for exporters.
Vinacas will ask the Ministry of Finance to deploy measures to encourage foreign-invested forms to focus on processing, contributing to increasing the ratio of processed products.
Although Vietnamese cashew is defined by the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council as having higher quality than that of African countries and Cambodia, the price of cashew material is not very different than that of other countries.
Therefore, the building of a Vietnamese cashew trademark should start by building a trademark for materials.
Công said Vinacas and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have built a set of national criteria for cashew material, which will be issued in 2019 and is expected to reduce problems in the quality of materials. — VNS
Source: vietnamnews.vn
VN PEPPER INDUSTRY FOCUSES ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Nguyễn Nam Hải, chairman of the Việt Nam Pepper Association, tells Việt Nam News about how to improve the value of the spice and develop the pepper industry.
How do you assess the Vietnamese pepper industry and how can it be developed further?
The pepper cultivation area tripled in five years, from 53,000 hectares in 2013 to 152,000 now. Two or three years ago when pepper prices increased a lot, we [growers] expanded pepper cultivation even into areas that were not suitable for cultivating it.
Not only Việt Nam but also other pepper growing countries like Brazil and Cambodia also expanded cultivation, resulting in a sharp increase in supply in the global market in the last three years, pushing prices down sharply.
We will focus on developing the pepper industry in a sustainable manner. To do so, we must restructure it.
We will not expand the area under pepper but try to reduce it to around 110,000 ha and strive to keep at this level.
But the area has gone up to over 150,000ha now. How does the industry propose to achieve the goal of keeping it at around 110,000ha?
In order to achieve the objective, authorised agencies, especially localities, must persuade farmers to switch from pepper to other crops with higher economic efficiency in places that do not have suitable soil or weather conditions for pepper.
Farmers grow pepper in places without water or suitable climate. Unfavourable weather such as high rainfall in the early part of this year caused diseases and destroyed some pepper farms in these places.
Drought since October has also affected pepper farms, particularly in places that do not have suitable climate or soil for pepper.
How is the pepper export situation this year? What is your forecast for next year?
Pepper exports increased by 8.3 per cent in volume terms but fell by 31.2 per cent in revenue terms in the first 10 months of the year over the same period last year due to a sharp drop in pepper export prices.
Việt Nam will enter a new harvest season between February and March. Pepper output in the 2019 crop will be not as high as forecast due to climate change impacts.
In the global market, supply will remain higher than demand, and thus it will be hard for prices to increase in 2019.
Companies mainly export pepper in raw form with low value. How can they add value to the spice and improve its quality?
To improve the quality of pepper, firstly we need to make growing it sustainable.
Secondly, we need to develop a co-ordinated processing system.
Thirdly, growers must always avoid the abuse of pesticides and chemical fertilisers to retain our prestige in the eyes of foreign customers.
At a time when supply is higher than demand, we should apply modern processing technologies to make high-value products such as pepper oil.
So applying technology to highly process pepper will definitely solve the surplus pepper volume.
The majority of processing plants are standardised to achieve good manufacturing practice and other international standards.
The biggest challenge for the pepper industry is growing the crop.
Compared with many years ago more and more farmers are adopting good agricultural practice (GAP) to ensure food safety and hygiene in accordance with export requirements. But the industry needs to make more efforts to further improve the quality of pepper.
Việt Nam has signed many free trade agreements. What should the industry do to take advantage of the opportunities brought by these agreements?
Free trade agreements offer us the opportunity to raise the position of our pepper industry in the global market, but also entail challenges.
This requires us to restructure the industry to enable it to develop in a sustainable manner, with a focus on ensuring product quality, trace ability and efficiency.
In general, to take advantage of this opportunity, Vietnammese pepper enterprises must firstly focus on ensuring quality.
Secondly, they must develop sustainable farming.
Can you tell us something about organic pepper?
Farming of organic pepper is still modest compared to the country’s potential.
In our plan to sustainable develop the pepper industry, we will focus on expanding the area under organic pepper. — VNS
Source: vietnamnews.vn
VIETNAM ACHIEVES RECORD CASHEW EXPORTS
Việt Nam achieved its highest ever cashew exports in a year in 2017 with shipments worth US$3.52 billion.
It exported 353,000 tonnes, representing a year-on- year increase of 23.8 per cent in value and 1.9 per cent in volume, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The US, the Netherlands and China remained the biggest buyers, accounting for 35 per cent, 15.6 per cent and 12.9 per cent of the shipments.
Exports to many markets rose sharply, including Russia (up 56.3 per cent), the Netherlands (44.7 per cent), Thailand (41.4 per cent), the US (27 per cent), and the UK (24.8 per cent).
Average export prices were up by over 22 per cent.
While demand rose in the world market, supply was down significantly in many countries, including Việt Nam, pushing prices up, according to cashew companies.
Demand is expected to continue increasing, enabling Vietnamese firms to boost exports in future, according to the Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas).
Vietnamese processors have worked relentlessly to improve their quality, promote their brands and maintain their prestige, and this has played a very important role in the development of the cashew industry, the association said.
Việt Nam has leading processing technologies, it said.
Nguyễn Đức Thanh, Vinacas’ chairman, said despite being the world’s biggest cashew processor and exporter, the industry’s profits are modest.
Vietnamese firms mostly exported at around $10 a kilogramme last year while value-added cashew products were sold at supermarkets abroad at up to $30.
To improve the situation, more and more firms have invested in modern technologies and machinery to make more value-added cashew products, including salted/honey roasted nuts and wasabi- and chocolate-coated nuts.
A number of companies from the US and Singapore have also invested in processing facilities to make value-added cashew products in Việt Nam, he said.
The association as well as businesses in the sector said the current reliance on raw cashew imports is a great risk to the cashew industry.
Local raw cashew supply only meets 20 -35 per cent of demand.
In the first 11 months of last year, companies imported 1.2 million tonnes of cashew, up 27.4 per cent year-on-year, mainly from African countries, with the import prices up by 26.2 per cent last year.
Thanh said the association has collaborated with the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Cambodian firms to grow 1 million tonnes of cashew on an area of 500,000 hectares by 2022.
Vinacas and its members would buy the entire output and work closely with the Cambodian partners to speed up the project, he said.
For this year, the cashew industry has set a target of reducing exports to 300,000 tonnes while improving the quality of exports and adding value to their products. — VNS
