EVFTA Agreement: A billion dollar export opportunity for cashew nuts
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - Deputy Director of Binh Phuoc Department of Industry and Trade, said that in 2019, the country's cashew export turnover reached 3.5 billion USD, leading in the export of agricultural products.
Preliminary processing of cashew for export. Illustrative photo: VNA
The Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Union-EU (EVFTA) will take effect from 1 August 2020. This is a great opportunity to bring Vietnam's strong products and products, especially agricultural products; including cashew nuts, on the European market - a potential and difficult market.
Stabilizing acreage, increasing cashew output
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - Deputy Director of Binh Phuoc Department of Industry and Trade said that in 2019, the country's cashew export turnover reached 3.5 billion USD, leading in agricultural products. export.
Each year, Vietnam needs more than 1 million tons of raw materials for production and processing. The harvested output in the country is only about 300,000 tons, the rest still have to import cashew from abroad, especially from West African countries.
"The quality of raw cashew nuts imported from abroad is not equal to that of domestic cashew nuts, especially that of Binh Phuoc. Price is precarious, can not master both the price and the market, so it is very difficult to ensure production stability "- Mr. Hieu commented.
Not only the leader in terms of area, Binh Phuoc is also leading the country in quantity. Cashew processing facility with more than 1,400 establishments, most of them are small and medium enterprises.In 2019, Binh Phuoc cashew export turnover reached more than 825 million USD, raw cashew nut import 38.5 million USD.
According to the plan for the development of the cashew industry of Binh Phuoc to 2025 with a vision to 2030, the province continues to stabilize the cashew area on an area adapted to intensive farming and intercropping; associate production with cashew processing technology; applying advanced technical measures to diversify the products of the cashew industry; take initiative in quality control, overcoming commercial fraud, ensuring food safety and hygiene; improve competitiveness and develop Binh Phuoc cashew brand name in the domestic and international market.
The target is that the cashew area of Binh Phuoc from 2020 to 2030 will reach from 175,000 to 179,000 ha, the yield will increase from 1.57 tons / ha to 2.11 tons / ha; production from 243,000 tons in 2020 to 352,000 tons by 2030; maintain the cashew processing capacity of 500,000 tons / year, of which, deep processing from 10,000 tons (2020) to 30,000 tons by 2030.
Affirming the brand in the EU
EU is a market with very high requirements for quality. food safety and quality, so from input materials, processing, distribution, or in other words, the value chain must ensure to meet the market's requirements - Mr. Hieu said.
Therefore, in order to access markets like the EU, cashew businesses need to be transparent from the production, processing, preservation and quality announcement of products in accordance with regulations. Once you have confirmed your confidence in the market, the next steps will be easier.
The current bottleneck of the cashew industry is to ensure raw materials for production, not depending on imported raw materials. Therefore, the first thing is to produce cashew seed to increase productivity; applying science and technology to production for the market, especially the EU pays great attention to product quality.
Mr. Vu Manh Tung - Director of Gold Cashew Nuts Co., Ltd. said that in order for Vietnamese cashew nuts to enter this market, two factors must be met. Firstly, it is necessary to overcome the technical regulations and barriers and be certified by the EU on food hygiene and safety. The second factor is chain production, traceability from farm to table.
Recently, despite the impact of COVID-19 epidemic, businesses still sign cashew export contracts to Australia, Japan and the EU in the near future.
The general trend of customers today is to always require traceability of goods, building clean and safe raw material areas, without using chemical drugs. Among them, the model of linking businesses and farmers is the fundamental problem to stabilize both inputs and outputs.
When the business develops and has a good profit, surely the interests of farmers are also guaranteed. Thus, farmers will be ready to cultivate and produce according to the criteria that businesses and markets require - Mr. Tung shared.
Binh Phuoc Provincial People's Committee said that by 2020, the province's cashew export turnover strives to reach 800 million USD, by 2025 it is 900 million USD, by 2030 will reach 1 billion USD./.