<p>Ngoc Hung Vinacas Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh said Vietnamese cashew nuts had better quality than the same products of Cambodia and African countries, so they should be exported at high prices. This is not the first time Vinacas has told exporters not to undercut each other that may affect the entire industry. The association did so once in late February and eventually helped shore up cashew export prices.</p> <p>Now, under the pressure exerted by importers, Vinacas calls for a joint effort among cashew exporters to keep export prices from falling further “Importers have been pushing down prices of Vietnamese cashew nuts in recent years, so local enterprises need to join forces to win contracts with reasonable prices rather than racing to lower prices,” said Thanh. Cashew nut export prices are currently US$7-8 per kilo. Importers only need to process them a little more to sell at twice the price.</p> <p>Therefore, they are trying to push down prices as much as possible, he remarked. However, thanks to their good quality, Vietnamese cashew nuts can be sold to the high-end markets at 15% higher prices. On March 26, the cashew nut category WW320 was priced at US$3.37-4.42 a pound (or 0.454 kilo), which fell to US$3.36-4.41 on March 28 under the pressure placed by importers and had remained unchanged days later. In line with the decline in export prices, raw cashew prices in Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai have gone down VND1,000-2,000 to VND29,000-30,000 per kilo. The country exported some 42,000 tons of cashew nuts in the first three months, earning US$239 million, down 58.5% in volume and 8.7% in value year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.</p>