<p>Vietnam, the world’s number 1 exporter of cashew products, expects to import an additional 500,000 tonnes of nuts from now until October to meet its annual export target, according to the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas).Without imports, the industry will not meet its export target of 360,000 tonnes because unseasonal rains have shrunk the 2016-17 crop, which in any case would have been insufficient to meet processing demand, the association said. Currently, nearly two-thirds of the nuts for Vietnam’s cashew industry are imported.According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, 165,000 tonnes of cashew nuts worth about US$1.62 billion were exported in the first six months of 2017, up 2.3 per cent in volume and 27 per cent in value year-on-year.But Vinacas Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh said the domestic cashew supply was not sufficient for processing needs in the first half, so the industry had to import 400,000 tonnes of high-quality raw cashew nuts from Africa.</p>