The 13th VINACAS Golden Cashew Rendezvous to be held from February 26 to 28 in Quảng Bình Province’s Đồng Hới City will seek to redefine the global supply chain after the Covid pandemic and this year’s economic downturn, according to the Việt Nam Cashew Association. Vietnamese and foreign businesses would sit together to review market fluctuations and supply chain changes and reshape the world’s cashew value chain for 2024 and subsequent years towards a more sustainable, efficient direction, Việt Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas) chairman Phạm Văn Công said. Participants would have the opportunity to access the latest information on crops, markets and prices, he added. Organised by Vinacas and the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, the conference is expected to attract 400-500 participants. Công said around 300 foreign delegates have registered, including from Japan, an emerging but promising market for Việt Nam's cashew industry. The event will feature a number of activities such as networking programmes, signing of deals and panel discussions on production and trading of raw nuts and kernels. There will be a half-day tour for all participants to Quảng Bình’s stupendous cave system, a UNESCO’s world natural heritage, on February 26. The event has been an important trade promotion event for Việt Nam’s cashew industry since it was first held in 2008, according to the association. It is also a major global event in the global cashew industry since for over 10 years Việt Nam has been the world's largest importer of raw cashew and largest exporter of cashew kernels, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of global exports, it said. The country also has the world's most advanced cashew processing equipment and technology, it added. Statistics from the General Department of Customs show that Việt Nam earned US$3.31 billion from exporting 582,000 tonnes of the nut in the first 11 months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 23.1 per cent in volume and 17.4 per cent in value.