HANOI: The local cashew industry has seen a spike in cashew prices, marking a 10 year record high, mostly due to increasing global prices. As reported by Vietnam News Agency, a kilogramme of raw cashew nuts can now be sold for VNĐ32,000 (US$1.4), and a kilogramme of dried cashew nuts fetches VNĐ40,000, the highest prices recorded in the past 10 years.
Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas)’s chairman Nguyễn Đức Thanh said that cashew exporters are also buying cashew nuts from local farmers at higher prices. “Exported cashew prices are rising due to global prices increasing. In addition, Vietnamese cashews are good quality and much favoured by foreign markets,” Thanh said. Since early March, growers in key cashew cultivation areas in the Southern and Central Highlands provinces have started to collect their cashew nuts as it is now entering peak harvest season.
Trần Văn Thi, a cashew grower in the Central Highlands of Đăk Nông Province said a kilogramme of cashew nuts previously sold for between VNĐ18,000 and 20,000, but now the prices have increased by VNĐ10,000 per kilogramme.
“With higher prices, a cashew growing household can now earn VNĐ90 million to 100 million per hectare of cashews, and after deducting all kinds of expenses and costs, they can gain from VNĐ70 million to VNĐ 85 million in profit,” Thi said.
Nguyễn Thị Huệ, who owns two hectares of cashew plantation in the southern Bình Phước Province’s Đồng Xoài Commune said this season she has collected about four tonnes of cashew nuts, adding that she has received numerous orders from cashew traders. She expects to earn a profit of VNĐ100 million after selling all this year’s crop. According to statistics from Vinacas, in the first two months of this year, Việt Nam exported 37,000 tonnes of cashews with a total revenue of $280 million, an increase of 11 per cent compared with the same period last year.
