Looking back 30 years, the domestic cashew industry with a key role as the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) has made a strong impression with many ups and downs. If breakthroughs in processing technology have made the first revolution and become the number 1 exporter of cashew in the world, the new situation needs Vinacas to make a second revolution to elevate its position. Vietnam in the global value chain. "King" for people who come later In the late 1990s, Kollam city and India entered the golden period when exporting 97,000 tons of cashew nuts / year. This represents 80% of the total global cashew processing output. Kollam city is considered as the cashew processing capital of the world. ears have cau nganh thing can cuoc ?? cach mang ?? lan 2 Farmers harvest cashew. Photo: IT Vinacas is promoting the development of Vietnam's cashew industry development strategy in a new situation to propose to the Government, in which proposing mechanisms and policies from the State to aim at two major goals: Strong development of the highlands. material in the direction of quality and efficiency. This will create an initiative in quality raw materials for processing, and contribute to the successful implementation of the three agricultural policy of the State. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese cashew industry, after 1975, just started to export raw cashew nuts (unshelled seeds). In the early 1980s, the cashew processing industry had taken its first steps. By 1990, Vinacas - a socio-professional organization representing Vietnamese cashew workers was established. Mr. Pham Van Cong - Vinacas President assessed that cashew processing technology is the "secret" contributing to the great success of the domestic cashew processing industry. The first milestone was in 1984, when a group of engineers led by Mr. Nguyen Van Lang - the father of Vietnam's cashew processing technology - began to research a technological line for roasting to cut the shell. When this technology is widely available, Vietnam has gone from exporting raw cashew to one of the leading exporting countries of cashew, just after India. Especially as a result of the national program KC07 (2008-2010) chaired by Vinacas, the new generation of Vietnamese silk-peeling and seed separating machines has come into operation and completed. This project has been particularly successful because it increases the yield in cashew processing by more than 10 times. According to many agricultural experts, this is a very important breakthrough of the Vietnamese cashew industry. It creates a real push to the cashew industry from manual processing, to processing by mechanical methods and automation. At the end of 2017, The Wall Street Journal (USA) published an article with the content: "Now, Vietnam is the" king of cashew nuts "of the world thanks to the development of technology in production. Kollam's position is weaker and weaker. Thus, the world capital for cashew processing has moved from India to Vietnam. Over 30 years of working with the cashew industry, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Director of Tanimex Company (the first organization of processing cashew for export in Long An province) called this journey "the king of the next". Helping farmers feel secure to keep the garden "Cashew is a multi-purpose tree, such as poverty alleviation, greening of bare land and barren hills. Currently, cashew trees put farmers in many challenges because of price fluctuations; climate change, However, many people are sticking around, still consider cashew as the key crop to help the family economic development, so the State and the Association need to have policies to help people feel secure. planting cashew trees, thereby keeping land and forests ". Mr. Tran Van Loc - cashew farmers in Binh Phuoc Proposing long-term development policy "The difference between the cashew industry and Vinacas, with the agricultural products industry and other associations is due to the ownership of processing technology. But not so that Vinacas takes farming lightly, but still strives to promote. promote the development of domestic raw material areas. The cashew industry has become a key commodity in agricultural exports with the contribution of all components from cashew growers, scientists, brokers, export processing enterprises, machinery and equipment manufacturing enterprises. Vinacas will continue to be a "common house" linking these components together as well as having proposals to help the Government issue long-term development policies. If "Talking about cashew nuts, thinking about Vietnam", then also "Speaking of cashew industry in Vietnam, think about Vinacas". Mr. Pham Van Cong - Vinacas President In the book "Love so much!", Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh said that before becoming the capital of the cashew industry, cashew trees in Binh Phuoc were very precarious. After the liberation day, ethnic minorities in Phuoc Long district still have the custom of migratory farming and burning forests. In 1990, the Government launched a cashew planting program that contributes to greening bare land, barren hills and improving the lives of farmers, especially ethnic minorities. The local government also stepped in with a policy to advocate for sedentarization with the people by planting cassava in combination with cashew. By 1989-1990, the cashew area in Phuoc Long was up to about 100,000 ha. During this time, the cashew processing technology of Vietnam was officially born. The elder of Dieu Kem village - a S'tieng ethnic minority in Long Ha commune (Phu Rieng district, Binh Phuoc province) said: Cashew trees have grown here since the State had a sedentary policy. He himself has helped farmers grow cashew by advance capital supplies, then recoup cashew nuts at market prices. Mr. Nguyen Van Tho-Nguyen, Vice Chairman of Binh Phuoc Provincial People's Committee, who contributed a lot of effort to the resettlement program, at that time evaluated that the planting of cashew has made the policy of sedentary farming successfully in Binh Phuoc. Resolve conflicts In the 15-year period from 2006 to 2020, although in difficult times, the cashew industry in Vietnam still maintains its No. 1 position in cashew kernel export and mastering processing technology and equipment. Vietnam has exported to more than 90 countries and territories and accounts for about 80% of world cashew exports. According to Mr. Pham Van Cong, despite strong developments, things are not always going smoothly. At the beginning of the 20th century, the cashew industry developed hotly in the field of export processing, giving rise to new difficulties, especially lack of raw materials ... Mr. Cong admits that the increasingly wide integration context will bring about great opportunities but also many challenges. Because businesses around the world are making efforts to develop, the cashew industry in general, and each business in particular, must renew its mindset to develop. The second challenge is that Vietnamese cashew nuts are still raw materials for a very large market of deeply processed products. The added value of the cashew industry in Vietnam has only just begun to approach, so it is still fraught with difficulties. Vietnam cashew industry is facing a great choice, either continuing to invest in technology and equipment to maintain the position of cashew kernel export, or both invest in cashew kernel and focus resources for deep processing. Accordingly, Mr. Cong noted that the second stage is really the "Second Revolution" to enhance Vietnam's position in the global treatment value chain. The last challenge is the ability to supply raw materials when Vietnam can only meet a small part of processing, especially the life of cashew farmers is still difficult.