Vietnam, the world’s second largest cashew nut exporter, is gradually knocking India out to win the top in the international cashew nut trading market, an Indian newspaper, The Economic Times, said on April 20.
The newspaper also admitted that Vietnam has become a major competitor for India in the world market and that raw cashew nut production in India has become stagnant in recent years despite good technology and high yielding varieties being available in the country.
"There is no dearth of technology. High yielding varieties have been developed here," an Indian official said with the newspaper. According to him the stagnancy is "purely due to our inability to execute our developmental programs".
The stagnancy in raw cashew nut production in the country has been forcing the processing industry in India to depend on imported raw nuts.
"In spite of all efforts, the industry could not find adequate raw cashew nuts to meet its requirements in full, forcing many units to remain closed either round the year or for a considerable period of the year," he pointed out.
Last year, the Indian exporters reportedly sold out as many as 114,143 tons of cashew nut abroad while Vietnam’s total shipment peaked at 103,000 tons.
Vietnam has captured a sizeable portion of the cashew markets from India. Around 38 per cent of its export is now to the US, 18 per cent to China and 11 per cent to New Zealand and Australia.
The Vietnamese Cashew Association (Vinacas) claims that the domestic producers in the country have been able to export cashew priced above Indian nuts and the Vietnamese producers have affirmed their quality in the world market.
At present, Vietnam tops global production with 380,000 tons of cashew nuts, followed by India, Nigeria, Brazil and Tanzania. At the same time, in terms of cashew cultivation area, Vietnam is at the fifth position with 380,000ha while India topped the list
Vietnam had early January projected an export volume of 120,000 tons for 2006, according to the association.
However, the newspaper said that Indian exports were likely to remain stagnant this year.
The cashew story is like a replay of what happened in pepper. Over the past 4-5 years, Vietnam has emerged as the largest producer of pepper pushing India down to the second place.
Vietnam is also one of the largest exporters of pepper in the world. Today, India is importing pepper from Vietnam. A decade back, India used to import raw cashew from Vietnam to meet its processing needs.
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