Vietnam ships more than 160,000 tonnes of cashew nuts abroad annually, becoming the US’ largest cashew nut exporter.

India lost its top cashew nut exporter status to Vietnam four years ago and is now a major importer of Vietnamese cashew nuts.

In eight of 2012’s months, India imported 3,245 tonnes of cashew nuts at an average price of 163.38 rupee/kg. A large proportion of that volume was supplied by Vietnam.

According to the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI), the Indian market’s huge volume cashew nut imports over the past two years are likely to continue in the future.

Giridhar Prabhu, Achal Cashew Export Company Director, says India’s cashew nut demand is increasing, both for household consumption and food processing.

Vietnam is a promising source of broken cashew nuts as its key export market-the US-is not interested.

Local exporters are therefore keen to capitalize on the Indian market.

CEPCI estimates India needs at least 700,000 tonnes of imported cashew nuts for its food processing industry.

Source: VOV