As cashew exports in the first half of 2022 fell by 9.2% against the same period last year to over 1.5 billion USD, the Vietnam Cashew Association (VCA) has to adjust down its annual export target to 3.2 billion USD.

Tran Van Hiep, Vice Chairman of VCA, said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a major cause for the falling exports, as Russia was the 14th largest importer of Vietnamese cashews and the conflict had the country cut off from the SWIFT system, causing payment difficulties for Vietnamese exporters.

Another cause is the mounting inflation in the US and EU. Higher inflation leads to higher prices for essential items, leaving consumers with no choice but to cut back on non-essential items, such as cashew nuts. The demand for Vietnamese cashew fell accordingly.

In addition, China is sticking to its zero-COVID policy, holding back the importation of the Vietnamese nuts, he added.
Amid contracting demand from abroad, VCA has to lower its export target to 3.2 billion USD for 2022, 600 million less than the target set at the beginning of the year.

Cashew exports earned Vietnam over 3.6 billion USD in 2021. In the first five months of 2022, Vietnam shipped abroad over 206,000 tonnes of the nuts worth 1.19 billion USD, down 7.81% in volume and 6.81% in value, the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS) reported.
Although the turnover decreased, the average export price increased by 1.45% compared to the same period in 2021, reaching about 5,792 USD per tonne./.