Hundreds of thousands of tons of goods from Africa are pouring into Vietnam

Hundreds of thousands of tons of goods from Africa are pouring into Vietnam, making Vietnam the world’s export tycoon. At attractive prices, our country spends more than 2 billion USD to collect goods.

Besides Africa, Cambodia is also increasing its exports of this item to Vietnam.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of goods from Africa are pouring into Vietnam.
Illustrative photo

Vietnam owns a series of billion-dollar agricultural products ranked high in the world, including rice, coffee, rubber, pepper, cassava, etc.

Notably, cashew nuts are a key export item of our country, holding the world’s No. 1 position for 16 consecutive years in cashew nut exports and accounting for nearly 80% of total global output.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2018, Vietnam produced about 2.66 million tons of cashew nuts, up 23% compared to 2017. This figure is 3.4 times higher than that of India, the world’s second-largest producer with an output of 790,000 tons, making Vietnam the world’s cashew king.

However, Vietnam has to rely heavily on raw cashew imports from many suppliers around the world. Cashew processing factories in Vietnam depend on imported supplies of more than 3 million tons of raw cashew nuts, of which about 2.2 million tons are from Africa, mainly West Africa. Domestic supply only ensures 10%.

According to preliminary statistics from the General Department of Customs, cashew imports to Vietnam in July reached 291,413 tons with a value of more than 346 million USD, up 1.9% in volume and 7% in value compared to the previous month.

In the first 7 months of the year, our country imported more than 1.7 million tons of cashew nuts with a value of more than 2.1 billion USD, up 2.5% in volume and 0.6% in value compared to 7M/2023.

In terms of market, Cambodia is Vietnam’s largest cashew nut supplier in the first 7M with more than 786 thousand tons, reaching 1.01 billion USD, up 34% in volume and 26% in value compared to the same period last year. It is worth noting that the price is also cheaper than last year with 1,287 USD/ton, corresponding to a decrease of 6%.

hundreds of thousands of cashew nuts imported from Africa to Vietnam
In addition to Cambodia, 2 African countries are emerging as major cashew nut suppliers to Vietnam, Ivory Coast, and Ghana.

Specifically, the second largest supplier of Vietnam is Ivory Coast with more than 325 thousand tons, turnover reaching more than 368 million USD, down 20.5% in volume and 22% in value compared to the previous year. The average price reached 1,134 USD/ton, down 2.7% and significantly cheaper than the import price from Cambodia.

Ranked third is Ghana with more than 201 thousand tons, worth more than 222 million USD, up 13% in volume and 12% in value compared to the same period last year. The average price reached 1,104 USD/ton, down 2% compared to the same period and also nearly 10% lower than the price of Cambodia.

In addition to the two African countries mentioned above, our country also imports cashew nuts from a number of other countries on this continent, such as Nilgeria and Tanzania, but only accounts for a very small market share.

Immediately after the 2024 cashew harvest, both domestic and imported raw cashew prices increased sharply. The reason for the current high cashew price increase is due to a sharp decrease in supply as the area for this crop is increasingly narrowing.

For Vietnam, in terms of export, in 2023, our country earned more than 3.6 billion USD from cashew nuts with 644,135 tons, a sharp increase of 24% in volume and 18.1% over the previous year.

In 2024, Vietnam aims to export a record 3.8 billion USD worth of cashew nuts (about 200 million USD higher than in 2023).

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that cashew exports in 2024 still have a lot of room for growth. However, the cashew industry is also facing the problems of raw materials, production costs, and the wave of shifting to green production. Therefore, businesses need to proactively monitor market developments and invest in improving quality to maintain export momentum.

Như Quỳnh (according to Nhip song thi truong)