Together with this good news, acting chair of Vietnam Association of Cashew Nguyen Duc Thanh quoted the words of the biggest cashew importers at recent conference on cashew product held in the US in last April saying the quality of Vietnamese cashew products is really better than the same products from other countries. After surpassing the world biggest cashew exporter of India last year, Vietnam's cashew export continued to increase in terms of both quantity and earnings in the first half this year. Statistics indicate the country has exported some 62,000 tonnes of cashew in the period January-June, earning some US$255 million, representing an increase of 16.3% against the same period 2006. Cashew is amongst four exports of Vietnam bringing in high export revenue, including rice, coffee, and rubber.
Vietnamese cashew is sold to more than 40 countries and territories, and the US is the biggest importer with 40% of total export volume, China 20%, the EU 20%, and the remaining 10% is exported Russia, Japan and Middle East
Local producers and exporters are applying various measures on planning, production, and processing to maintain the first position of Vietnam in terms of cashew export. Ministry of agriculture and rural development (Mard) has just announced its development strategy of cashew industry until 2010. Accordingly, the country will enlarge its area of growing high-quality cashew in parallel with establishing bigger processing plants to diversify products.
The cashew-growing areas include Tay Nguyen (the Central Highlands), eastern areas of the south, and the southern coastal areas with total area of 450,000 hectares. It is expected these growers could provide some 500 tonnes of raw cashew a year. The strategy targets to attain exports of this agriculture product at nearly US$700 million by 2010 and US$820 million by 2020.