Cashew Exports Drop 15% in Eight Months
Photo: CAC President Uon Silot
- By Chhum Chantha
- September 22, 2023 11:57 AM
PHNOM PENH – Cambodia produced about 634,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts in eight months. Of these, 607,000 tonnes were exported to Vietnam, generating $820 million.
The total fell by 15 percent on the same period in 2022, said Uon Silot, president of the Cashew Nut Association of Cambodia (CAC).
Silot said one of the reasons was climate change, which caused the association to downgrade the production estimate since August from a range of 800,000-1,000,000 tonnes to 500,000-700,000 tonnes this year.
“Climate change has affected cashew plantation for the past four years, especially last year. But it only happened in some areas,” he said last month, adding that it caused the farmers to cut down many cashew trees.
Some local enterprises had bought cashews for stocking which also led to a decline in exports to Vietnam.
However, the price of dried cashews increased from an average of $1,658 to $1,900 per tonne in August. The nuts cost from 7,000 to 7,500 riel per kilogram, he said.
A CAC report shows that about 100,000 hectares of cashew plantations have been cut down in the past few years though more than 30,000 hectares are growing cashews again.
There are currently more than 700,000 hectares of cashew plantations, down 100,000 hectares in 2021.
Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this story was translated by Meng Seavmey for Cambodianess.
