Cambodian cashew nut traders believe the market price for cashew nuts will increase, as demand from Vietnamese markets increases along with international demand.

Sim Many, a cashew-nut trader from Kampong Cham province, said trade had not finished for the season even though prices had dropped, as there were more nuts to be delivered to market.

“Even if Vietnam demands more nuts, the price is still lower now than earlier in the season,” she said, adding that “If they demand more, the price will go up.”

Early in the season, the price of cashew nuts was US$1,300 a tonne, but it had dropped to $1,100, Sim Many said.

By buying directly from farmers, traders could pay $1,050 a tonne, she said.

Srey Hong Ly, another cashew nut trader from Kampong Cham, said she had not heard of Vietnamese demand as a reason to raise the price, and she could not afford the drop in prices this year.

According to the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas), Vietnam has to import about 200,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts in the remaining months of the year to fulfil this year’s target of shipping 150,000 tonnes for an expected export turnover of $1 billion.

Vietnam’s domestic enterprise imported nearly 157,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts in the first seven months of the year, mostly from Cambodia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Indonesia.

According to export data from the Ministry of Commerce, Cambodian raw cashew nut exports increased more than 10-fold to 4,231 tonnes in the first half of this year compared with the corresponding period in 2011, when Cambodia exported 392 tonnes.

The price of cashew nuts dropped about $450 from $1,137 a tonne in 2011 to $685 a tonne this year.

This year’s revenue was $2,898,806, compared with last year’s $444,669.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rann Reuy at [email protected]