PHNOM PENH, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia exported 837 million U.S. dollars worth of raw cashew nuts in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 16.9 percent, according to the Cashew Nut Association of Cambodia's report on Monday.
The report said the Southeast Asian country exported a total of 656,000 tonnes of the commodity in 2023, representing a year-on-year drop of 7.6 percent in volume.
Some 618,000 tonnes, or 94.2 percent of the commodity, were shipped to neighboring Vietnam, it said.
The association's president Uon Silot said the decline in export was a good sign for Cambodia's cashew processing industry because it reflected an increase in the number of cashew nut processing enterprises in the kingdom.
"More local enterprises have purchased raw cashew nuts for processing in the country, which has led to a drop in the exports of the commodity to Vietnam," he said.
Cashew is among the country's potential cash crops in addition to rice, rubber, cassava, palm oil, bananas, mangoes, longans, and pepper.
According to the association, the kingdom currently has about 700,000 hectares of cashew plantations in 10 provinces. ■
