The Ministry of Commerce and relevant institutions looking to speed up the preparation of the draft National Policy on Cashew Nuts for 2022-2027 to submit for government review in the near future. Key objectives of the policy include reinforcing Cambodia’s capacity to grow, store, process, package, market, distribute and export cashew nuts and derived products, and establishing the Kingdom as a major producer and supplier regionally and beyond. Commerce ministry secretary of state Reach Ra on March 3 led a virtual workshop on the progress and potential of the Cambodian cashew nut sector, the ministry noted in a statement later that day. Ra instructed the ministries, institutions, development partners and private sector actors involved to keep pooling resources and pick up the pace of work on the six-year policy, to address some of the troubles dogging the sector today. “Feedback provided by representatives from the pertinent ministries and institutions … in the discussion and exchange of views on the potential, market and data of the Cambodian cashew nut sector is key to input gathering, to fully complement new advancements made in the preparation of the draft national policy on cashew nuts, before being submitted to the Cabinet. “[This is] especially so for [officials from] the agriculture ministry and customs general department, and representatives of the Cashew nut Association of Cambodia [CAC] and the private sector,†he said in the statement. CAC president Uon Silot told The Post that the private sector expects the policy to firmly prop up the cashew nut market to new heights, explaining that when enacted, the government would provide more credit to farmers to assist in the processing of the crops. But now with cashew apples ripening across the Kingdom’s orchards signalling that the harvest season has arrived, things appear not to be quite so sweet for the sector.