<p>Welhunt Materials Enterprise on Tuesday last week signed an academic-industrial pact with National Pingtung University of Science and Technology for its cashew nut business in Cambodia.University president Tai Chang-hsien (戴昌賢) said the university is to collaborate with Welhunt Materials on technical research, including tropical fruit tree cultivation, agricultural drones, artificial intelligence-assisted agricultural machinery and assembly lines with machine vision.</p> <p>Welhunt Materials is a diverse and international business that trades in steel, coal and cashews, company general manager Huang Ching-hua (黃清華) said.The growth of Welhunt Materials’ plantations in Cambodia over the past decade has created a demand for skilled workers and supervisors, he said, adding that the firm bought 350 hectares of farmland near Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, and planted 100,000 cashew trees last year.</p> <p>The company this year plans to establish a consolidated supply chain by cultivating another 1,200 hectares and installing a processing facility with a monthly output of 150 tonnes, he said.The global market for cashews is estimated to be worth US$3 billion per year, and Vietnam, the world’s leading exporter of finished cashew products, grows only one-third of the nuts it sells annually, Huang said.</p> <p>Vietnam’s 1.2 million tonnes of processed cashew exports were grown in three areas that have roughly equal output: Vietnam, Cambodia and Africa, he said.Unlike Vietnam, people are not worried that Cambodia’s cashew fields are affected by Agent Orange — a herbicide and defoliant used by the US Military during the Vietnam War — but the nation does not have any cashew processing facilities, which limits it to growing, he said.</p> <p>Having toured Vietnam’s cashew factories, Huang said he is convinced they need modern production techniques and sanitation standards, and Taiwanese technical expertise is competitive.</p>