Vietnams processed cashew nuts gradually infiltrate many markets

Vietnam is the world's No. 1 cashew exporter, but mainly cashew kernels. Recently, many businesses have invested in producing processed cashew nuts for export and domestic consumption.

One of the leading enterprises in deep processing from cashew nuts is Tanimex - LA, with headquarters and factories in Long An province. From its establishment (in 1998) to the early 2010s, Tanimex - LA has focused mainly on exporting cashew kernels.

In the early 2010s, Tanimex – LA began to consider deep processing from cashew nuts to sell in the domestic market. Cashew nuts with roasted salted silk shells and salted fried cashew nuts are not unfamiliar products in Vietnam. At the beginning of the 2010s, the popularity of processed products in the domestic market was still limited, despite that at the time Vietnam was the world's largest cashew kernel exporter with a turnover of over USD 1 billion.

In 2012, Tanimex - VN decided to carry out the "Bringing fried cashew products to domestic consumers" project, with salted fried cashew nut as the first product. After that, Tanimex - LA developed other products such as honey-flavored cashew nuts, wasabi-flavored cashew nuts, roasted salt cashew nuts with silk shell, original flavor dried cashew nuts, etc.

At the same time, the company also developed the Casna brand for all processed cashew kernel products. Owing to having been carefully researched on processing recipes to suit consumer tastes, Tanimex - LA's processed kernel products have gradually conquered domestic customers. At the "Vietnam Cashew Value 2014" forum, the honey and wasabi flavored cashew nuts of Tanimex - LA were awarded the first prize.

In recent years, many businesses in the cashew industry have also invested in deep processing to promote consumption in domestic markets and have gained a stable customer base. Some popular names are Lafooco with roasted salt cashew nuts, original flavor cashew nuts, honey-flavored cashew nuts, wasabi-flavored cashew nuts; Hapro with roasted cashew nuts; Vietnuts with roasted salt cashews, roasted cashew nuts with silk shell, original flavor cashew nuts, honey-flavored cashew nuts, wasabi-flavored cashew nuts, and dried cashew nuts with white sesame.

In addition to conquering domestic customers, processed cashew nuts of many enterprises in the cashew industry in Vietnam have also been exported to many countries around the world, especially to the European region, as the import tax on processed cashew nuts in Vietnam is reduced from 7-12% previously to 0% under the EVFTA. Earlier this year, Hoang Son 1 Joint Stock Company (Binh Phuoc) has exported thousands of tons of processed cashew nuts to Europe and got a good price thanks to the elimination of import tax on this item.

Long Son Group (HCMC), the second-largest cashew kernel exporter in Vietnam, is also promoting the production and export of processed cashew products such as roasted salt cashew nuts, roasted salt cashew nuts with silk shell, fried salt cashew nuts, cheese-flavored cashew nuts, spiced cashew nuts, cashew nuts with sesame...

Although processed cashews still account for a relatively small proportion of Long Son's total cashew exports, the company is still persistently promoting exports of these products and gradually increase its proportion in the near future.

Processed cashew nuts of Lafooco (Long An) have been put on shelves in many supermarkets in China, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan, Europe ... Thanks to the product getting listed on Amazon, earlier this year, Lafooco's processed cashew nuts have been sold and ordered by many customers in the US.

According to Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director of Hapro, recently, Hapro has exported processed cashew nuts to a number of key markets and found it very effective. Therefore, in the coming period, Hapro will focus more on processed cashew nuts and will improve quality, find more customers, and expand the market for this item.