Vietnam: 10 percent drop in cashew exports forecast on lower demand

Vietnam, the world’s biggest cashew nut exporter, expects a 10 percent decline in overseas shipments this year because of lower demand amid the global recession.

Export of the nut, which accounted for 11 percent of total agricultural exports last year, may reach 150,000 tons in 2009, Nguyen Duc Thanh, president of the Vietnam Cashew Association, said in an interview last week in Ho Chi Minh City.

The cashew industry faces a “very difficult time,” Thanh said.

Orders in February have slid about 50 percent from a year earlier, and export prices may fall 30 percent this year, he said.

While low-quality cashews account for a large part of the country’s crops, customers have ordered mostly high-quality nuts in the first two months of this year, further damaging sales, an association report said.

To make things worse, 85 percent of the country’s 220 cashew processors are ineligible for loans under the government’s loan-subsidy program, Thanh said.


Source: thanhniennews.com

Publication date: 3/9/2009