Although contributing to the group of industries with export turnover of billions of USD, in the volatile and difficult 2022, the cashew industry has not achieved the set target. Exports fell before many barriers According to statistics of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam's cashew nut export turnover in 2022 is estimated at 3.05 billion USD, with an output of 514,699 tons, down 12.6% in volume, down 16% in value. achieve the set target from the beginning of 2022. The reason for this decline, cashew industry experts commented, high inflation in many countries, especially those with developed economies, has caused people here to tighten their spending. pepper; including the reduction of non-essential foods in the daily meal. In addition, the Russian-Ukrainian war has made world trade difficult. Tran Van Hiep, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Cashew Association, shared that in 2021, Russia is the 11th market among 104 export markets of Vietnam's cashew kernels, with an export value of nearly 62 million USD. Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict occurred, Russia was excluded from the SWIFT payment system, the export of Vietnamese cashew nuts to Russia faced difficulties in payment, greatly affecting cashew kernel exports to this market. Not only that, Vietnam's other major market, China, still maintains the "No COVID" policy from the beginning of 2022 to the end of November 2022, making the export of cashew kernels as well as other agricultural products continue. continue to be at a disadvantage in the Chinese market. Transportation costs also contribute significantly to this difficulty, making the selling price of cashews forced to increase in order to be profitable. "Also at the same time as global inflation increased, the price of raw cashew nuts also increased compared to the sold cashew nuts, the processing cost for export was high while the selling price was low, making it difficult for processing factories to balance. For example, in the cashew processing capital of Binh Phuoc, many small processing factories had to suspend production to "cut losses" at this time, while large factories also reduced their production. capacity and moderate processing because the more processing, the more losses. Therefore, the surplus value from raw materials to processing kernels is a difficult problem to maintain the operation of the factory and processing activities. , cashew exports of cashew businesses in 2022," shared Mr. Vu Thai Son, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Long Son Cashew Joint Stock Company. Find niche market and increase domestic consumption Because of the difficulty of the market, including raw materials for processing, the cashew industry has found many ways to solve this difficult problem. With the total processing capacity of the cashew industry reaching more than 1.6 million tons, in 2022, the whole cashew industry has imported more than 1.8 million tons of raw cashew nuts from markets in Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Cambodia. .. The cashew industry has to import a larger source of raw materials than the total processing capacity of the whole industry because domestic raw materials can only supply 25% of this capacity. Moreover, cashew processing and exporting enterprises have many large factories, which means they have a large warehouse of raw materials. Large source of imported raw materials for storage purposes, serving difficult times such as the COVID-19 response period in 2021, no empty containers, high transportation costs. Not only factories in Vietnam have to stockpile raw materials, many foreign importers also have stockpiles in 2021 to supply the consumer market, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic response. out globally. Therefore, to overcome objective difficulties, cashew processing and exporting enterprises have sought alternative markets for volatile markets. Mr. Pham Van Cong, Chairman of the Vietnam Cashew Association, shared that cashew processing and exporting enterprises have also flexibly found small markets such as Asian countries, replacing the large volatile markets of the US. , Europe, China, although these markets have less consumption, they still contribute to stabilizing exports to some extent compared to the decline of major markets. Besides, exploiting the domestic market is also a solution to overcome difficulties of cashew processing enterprises. Mr. Vu Manh Hung, Director of Golden Cashew Nuts Limited Liability Company, said that the domestic market is still a potential market, which can stimulate cashew consumption to stabilize the cashew industry. In particular, Vietnamese cashew nuts have a higher nutritional content than that of imported cashew nuts. Therefore, Golden Cashew Company has to use domestic raw materials to stimulate domestic demand, creating a habit of using cashew nuts for Vietnamese consumers. This is as a solution to stimulate cashew consumption for Vietnamese people, contributing to further promoting Vietnamese cashews to niche markets and small markets.