According to latest figure from the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), Vietnamese enterprises have so far this year collected nearly 400,000 tons of raw cashew nuts, including nearly 50,000 tons imported from Cambodia.
The enterprises have shipped more than 50,000 tons of different kinds of cashew nuts, earning $220 million in the past seven months. The figures are even lower than that provided by the General Statistics Office late July.
Vinacas’s figures showed that the industry has met only 39 per cent of its yearly plan. The association blamed the drop in export for labor shortage that hindered local enterprises from collecting materials and processing cashew nuts, resulting in weak product supply.
Nguyen Duc Thanh, acting as Chairman of Vinacas, said Vietnam now has around 150 enterprises participating in exporting cashew nuts.
But two three of them can not ensure stable cashew supply because they do not have processing factories.
Only 20 enterprises gain annual export revenue of $5 million each, and only 14 enterprises apply ISO 9001:2000, GMP and HACCP standards in processing.
Despite facing with such obstacles, the industry’s plan to export 70,000 tons of cashew nuts worth $320-340 million seems to be unfeasible.
Last year, Vietnam’s the world biggest cashew exporter, shipped 130,000 tons of cashew nuts abroad, raking in $520 million, up $35 million against 2005 but $100 million lower than initial target. (Vietnam Agriculture)