Although Vietnam is the world biggest exporter of cashew and peppercorn, and the second of coffee, the country is expected to earn only US$3.5 billion from exporting coffee for the whole year, the same as last year’s figure due to a drop in its price.

The country has earned US$718 million from peppercorn export so far, a slump of 32.5% over the same period in 2017 as the price in the majority of markets fell 38% averagely.

Meanwhile, so far, Vietnam has shipped abroad 3.4 million tonnes of cassava for US$905.2 million, a fall of nearly 4% in volume and 0.45% in value compared to the same period last year.

Exports to China, the biggest market of Vietnam’s cassava, have decreased over 2017.

According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Nguyen Xuan Cuong, Vietnam’s peppercorn sector should be drastically restructured, while farm areas in ineffective region reduced and quality improved.

At the same time, the export volume of cashew has reached 342,000 tonnes, up 5.9%, with a value of US$3.1 billion, down 3.1% year on year.

Due to weakness in the supply of raw materials, Vietnam has imported 1.14 million of material cashew worth US$2.25 billion from the beginning of this year. Despite its position as the biggest cashew exporters, the country makes up only 18% to the global cashew value chain.

According to the Department of Agro-Product Processing and Market Development, in the coming time, the world cashew price will be go up thanks to rising demand at the end of the year and decrease in supply as Tanzania will buy all raw cashew it produces and African countries’ plans to process cashew instead of exporting it as a raw material.

The MARD reported that Vietnam has 10 cashew production hubs accounting for 94% of its total cashew areas. It stressed the need to review the planning of the sector, and said it is working with Cambodia to develop cashew material region.