The Kingdom’s raw cashew production in the first seven months of the year reached only 620,000 tonnes, a decline of 15.9 percent compared to the same period last year while Vietnam remained the top buyer, importing around 95.32 percent of all raw cashew produced in Cambodia, showed the data of the Cashew Nut Association of Cambodia (CAC). According to the data provided to Khmer Times yesterday by Uon Silot, President of CAC, Vietnam imported 591,000 tonnes of cashew, worth over $805 million, from Cambodia with an average price of $1,658 per tonne or 6,700 riels per kg. In 2022, Vietnam exported 519,782 tonnes of processed cashew nuts worth $3.08 billion, a drop of 10.3 percent in volume, and a decrease of 15.1 percent in value compared to 2021. Silot said due to the changes in weather in Cambodia over the last two years, raw cashew production is expected to go down to 700,000 tonnes by the end of this year as against the previous estimates of one million tonnes. According to Pham Van Cong, the President of the Vietnam Cashew Association, the cashew processing industry in the country is facing strong competition from Cambodia and West Africa as these countries are developing their own cashew processing infrastructure including factories and workers. “As such, Vietnamese small processing factories are forced to join together to attract large investments to improve their infrastructure competing with other countries across the region,†Cong said. But CAC was of the view that Vietnam should not worry about competition from Cambodia. The association considers Vietnam a non-competitive partner and has been selling over 90 percent of raw cashew nuts to the country for the last several years, Silot pointed out. Meanwhile, China has reduced the imports of processed cashew nuts from Vietnam but increased the imports from other countries in Southeast Asia. In the first six months of this year, China imported 1,934 tonnes of processed cashew nuts from Vietnam worth around $88.51 million, down by 10.8 percent. But in the first three months of the year, Chinese imports of processed cashew nuts from Cambodia went up by nearly 40 times compared to the same period last year, reaching over three million dollars for the first time. Silot also said that the association sought to increase cashew cultivation and for this, it met with several Chinese businessmen, both in person and online. However, China prefers only processed cashew nuts and Cambodia does not have enough capacity to meet the purchase demand as the processing factories in the Kingdom are still limited, with no raw materials in stock, and without adequate workforce, making the price also higher compared to other countries. Through support from German International Cooperation (GIZ), Japanese company TPJ and Cambodian embassies in Malaysia and China, cashew products from the country have been exhibited in Germany, China, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. Despite all the support, the Kingdom has not yet been able to meet the demand from these countries.