<p>However, the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) denies the claims, saying that the news has been released by exporting enterprises who are trying to purchase cashew from small processing facilities with lower prices. Seeing the farm produce market’s volatility, Quang Vinh Company has recently forecast that Vietnam’s export cashew nut prices would continue deep falls in the next few months. Vietnam enjoyed a bumper cashew harvest in the last season with a combined yield of 420,000 tons, up 60,000 tons from the 2012 crop, Quang Vinh noted. Besides, the country is looking to import around 400,000 tons of unprocessed products in all of 2013, meaning it will have about 230,000 tons of cashew nuts processed for export this year, according to the firm.</p> <p>The huge local supply, plus slackened cashew import demand, will force companies in the industry to reduce selling prices, Quang Vinh predicted. That’s why prices of cashew nut products have plunged to their lowest in three years, the company explained. Because of the aforesaid elements, Quang Vinh said, export cashew nut prices would continue dropping strongly in the months to come. The price of WW320 cashew nuts stood at US$3.15-3.20 a pound on Tuesday, which the firm forecast would dwindle to US$3 in the near future.</p> <p>Crude cashew imports totaled 205,000 tons in the first six months, marking up roughly 48% year-on-year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reports. The quality of many imported shipments is poor while their humidity is reportedly high, Vinacas said, adding several foreign exporters even sell substandard products of the previous crops to local enterprises. Cashew demand from other Asian nations, Europe and North America will pick up sharply in the third quarter, Vinacas forecast. Additionally, inventories at key cashew producing nations are lower than the average in previous years, so export cashew prices might go up, said the association which declined to elaborate on the specific inventory volume.</p> <p>Despite slight cashew price hikes from now until the end of the year as estimated by Vinacas, numerous exporting companies prefer spot transactions to avoid losses caused by the market price volatility. The country exported a combined 115,000 tons of cashew nuts worth US$723 million in the years’ first half, growing nearly 16% in volume and 5.7% in value over the same period in 2012. The five-month export cashew nut price averaged out at US$6,185 a ton, dipping 10.5% year-on-year.</p> <p> </p>