Vinacas – Talk Vietnam

According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Director of the Agro Processing and Market Development Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), every year, the EU imports agricultural products with a total value of about US$160 billion. Vietnam has many dominant commodities, but some products have not made the most of the advantages from the EVFTA to export to the EU. For instance, Vietnam is the world’s largest cashew nut exporter, but it has not yet benefited from exporting processed cashew to the EU market. Despite the advantage of a quota of 20,000 tons, the cane sugar industry has not had any optimistic signals yet. Honey exports to the US are the highest, followed by China and Japan, but honey exports to the EU remain modest. With the addition of the EU market, it will diversify markets and prevent breakages of the supply chain. Moreover, exporters will not be on the back foot, looking for new markets. Under the EVFTA, deeply-processed products from cashew nuts, with a tax rate of 7-12 percent, will be reduced to zero percent. According to the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), although Vietnam is the world's largest cashew nut exporter, about 80 percent of the raw cashew output is imported. At present, African countries specializing in exporting raw cashew have also started building processing plants to produce cashew nuts for export. In order to compete, African countries will increase the prices of raw cashew. The cashew industry of Vietnam is forecasted to be at risk of losing its position as the No.1 cashew nut exporter. At the conference to summarize the cashew industry in 2020, the Vinacas emphasized that enterprises must move to the second revolution, which is to build factories to produce processed and seasoned roasted cashew nuts to increase the global value chain. In a recent conference of the cane sugar industry, an expert said that despite the EVFTA with a quota of 20,000 tons of sugar, no enterprises had taken …