<p></p><p>Vietnam raked in 1.78 billion USD from shipping 245,000 tons of cashew nuts abroad in the first nine months of this year, up 7.8 percent in volume and 20.6 percent in value year-on-year. <br></p> <p>In September alone, the country exported about 30,000 tons of cashew nuts, pocketing 218 million USD. <br></p> <p>The figures make a stark contrast to other agro-forestry-fisheries products whose total export turnover stood at only 10.29 billion USD from January-September, representing a year-on-year decrease of 7.2 percent. </p> <p> The US, the Netherlands and China are Vietnam’s largest cashew importers, making up 61.17 percent of the country’s total export revenue. <br></p> <p>The average price of each ton of cashew nuts in the first eight months stood at 7,271 USD, up 12.48 percent against the same period last year. <br></p> <p>The Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS) said the country targets 320,000 tons of cashew nut exports and 2.5 billion USD in revenue in 2015. <br></p> <p>The target is feasible as cashew demand is expected to rise in most markets in the remaining months of this year, the association affirmed. <br></p> <p>According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam has to import about 60 percent of its raw cashew nuts from African nations, Indonesia and Cambodia in service of processing and export. <br></p> <p>To ease the dependence on imports, the ministry has coordinated with VINACAS in planning, cultivating and improving cashew varieties over the past two years. <br></p> <p>The country now has over 300,000 hectares of cashews in the southern provinces of Binh Phuoc, Ba Ria – Vung Tau and Dong Nai; Phu Yen and Binh Dinh provinces in the central region; and the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. <br></p> <p>The MARD and VINACAS have also implemented a project to upgrade 60,000 hectares of cashews. <br></p> <p>VINACAS has suggested farmers cultivate good quality cashew varieties in order to increase mechanisation and cut labour force needs in processing. <br></p> <p>MARD Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said thanks to new cultivation methods, cashew productivity has increased significantly with many models yielding up to 6 tons per hectare.-VNA<br></p><p></p>