If you are content with what you already have but forget to invest in innovation, Vietnam’s cashew industry can be defeated by new competitors.
The Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) sets a goal in 2022 to keep the quantity stable, increase the quality and increase the price with export turnover striving to reach $3.8 billion, up 3.9% compared to 2021.
In 2021, overcoming the difficulties and challenges of the Covid-19 epidemic, the cashew industry continued to grow positively by 14% compared to 2020, reaching 3,659 billion USD. Up to now, Vietnam’s cashew industry still holds the number one position in the world in terms of technology and export volume (accounting for 80% of global cashew trade), which plays an important role in the global raw cashew market. .
In recent years, an issue has emerged that African countries – which mainly export raw cashew nuts to Vietnam – have gradually invested in processing and taxed raw cashew exports at 5%. Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoa – Director of Bimico Co., Ltd., Vice Chairman of Vinacas – warned that in recent years, some enterprises (DN) have increased their imports of pre-processed cashews from Africa.
“The import speed of this product line increased by more than 100%, the volume of imported pre-processed cashew kernels will reach more than 88,200 tons in 2021. This is a newly peeled, unpeeled silk kernel imported to get C/ O (origin of goods) Vietnam, but because the processing technique is not equal to ours, it will affect the quality of cashew kernels for export in general.
This product line is encouraged by African countries, so it is not subject to export tax and is also subsidized by the government by several hundred USD/ton, plus low transportation costs (5 containers of raw cashews can only process 1 container of cashew kernels). . With those advantages, if Vietnam continues to open the door to the import of normal pre-processed cashew kernels like with raw cashew nuts, it will help the African processing industry to develop rapidly and compete directly with Vietnam’s cashew kernels. Mr. Hoa analyzed and suggested that a technical barrier is needed for this product line to avoid falling into the situation of aiding the opponent to strengthen.
According to Mr. Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Department – Ministry of Industry and Trade, in 2022, the cashew industry will have many advantages when demand increases in most import markets due to the economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic. along with the increasing trend of using vegetable protein. However, there are still some challenges due to the increasing requirements of the market on food quality, safety, environment, and social responsibility while the cashew industry still has many small businesses that need support to meet the requirements. Okay. Besides, there is increasingly fierce competition from India, Tanzania and recently emerging from some African countries such as Mozambique, Ghana… in the processing, distribution, branding while they are proactive. raw material area.
“Through research by international experts, Vietnam’s cashew industry has only joined 18% of the world’s cashew value chain. High segments such as finished product processing and distribution and distribution account for 80% of the value, not yet Therefore, Vietnamese enterprises need to pay more attention to deep processing and brand enhancement rather than expanding area and increasing output,” said Mr. Phu.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan advised cashew businesses not to fall into their own trap when contented with the world’s No. 1 position. The head of the agricultural industry suggested that the cashew industry should open a contest to develop new products, although the results will not be collected in the next 5-10 years. In addition, not only the cashew kernel but also other parts from the cashew tree, cashew nuts need to be valued to exploit to improve the value as well as combine cashews with many other foods to enhance each other’s value.
