August marks another month where RCN (raw cashew nut) exports from Vietnam to the US dropped. During August 2021 Vietnam exported 15,000MT while in 2022 the exported volume reached just over 8,000MT. The fall in exports to the US over the past four months has been staggering, from over 67,000MT in May-August 2021 to just over 39,000MT for the same period in 2022, with the YTD decrease reaching 23%.
Conversely, Europe and China showed recoveries in August both importing higher volumes from Vietnam. Europe is up 8% and China 45%. Despite the fall in US demand and due to strong demand from other markets, the overall export volume remains down between 12-13% YTD.
Imports of West African RCN into Vietnam remain over 300,000MT down from last year, far higher than the drop in kernel exports. Most of this RCN has now gone to India for their domestic market. What is left in Africa is either of poor quality or extremely highly priced (Guinea Bissau / Senegal) which will go for the Chinese premium market. There seems to be an oversupply in all nut markets at the moment and certainly appears that way on cashews as well.