The event was jointly organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s office in Ho Chi Minh City and Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP).
Despite being the world's largest exporter of finished cashew nuts, Vietnam must import about 70% of raw materials for processing. Major suppliers of raw cashew nuts for Vietnam are in West African countries, Cambodia and Indonesia.
According to Director of ARISE IIP in West Africa Jasveer Singh, Africa is facing a lack of jobs for young people and a shortage of food and medicine after the COVID-19 pandemic. The governments of African countries are trying to fix instabilities by improving domestic production capacity.
Some African countries plan to ban exports of raw cashew nuts in order to ensure supplies for domestic production and processing, and this will affect import - export activities of agricultural products.
Nguyen Thi Tuong Vi, head of ARISE IIP’s representative office in Vietnam, said that in many African countries, cashew nut processing ecosystems are being developed synchronously, from warehouses, preliminary processing areas, and deep processing factories.
African countries’ governments have also issued preferential tax policies for investors, she added.
In this context, participants suggested Vietnamese businesses consider setting up offices in West Africa to be proactive in purchasing raw materials for processing.
Vietnamese enterprises can develop factories in West African nations to take advantage of raw materials, cheap labour and preferential investment policies to process cashew products for export, thus increasing their value in the global cashew supply chain, they said.
