HANOI, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Despite record high export value in the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam's cashew industry still has to import huge volumes of raw cashew nuts for processing export products, Vietnam News reported Thursday.
The industry had to spend more than 3 billion U.S. dollars importing raw cashew nuts for processing products for exports during the cited period.
Meanwhile, the export value in 11 months was estimated at 3.98 billion dollars with 669,000 tons of cashew nuts sold, up 20.6 percent in value and 15.2 percent in volume over the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.
Cashew factories in Vietnam need about 3-3.5 million tons of raw cashews each year for export processing, while the domestic raw cashew output is only about 300,000-350,000 tons, or only about ten percent of the demand.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the cashew's export value is expected to reach 4.3 billion dollars this year while the material import value is likely to reach 3.2 billion dollars. ■
