Cashew industry alarmed by declining product quality

Ngành điều báo động vì chất lượng sản phẩm đi xuống - Ảnh 1. — Cashew nut exports are picking up steam as the consumer market begins to recover.

On the afternoon of October 10, the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) held a press conference with media agencies to share the recent operations and orientations for the last months of the year. According to the Vinacas Board of Directors, after 2 years of decline due to the pandemic and war situation in the world , the cashew industry has recovered since the beginning of the year, especially in recent months with more orders signed. However, since June 2023, many export shipments to the US and Europe have been continuously warned about live insect contamination. According to Vinacas, the level of alarm has increased in the third quarter of 2023 when there are more export orders, overtime at night makes it easier for live insects to breed, the disinfection process has also increased but does not ensure the quarantine time; leading to pesticide residues in processed cashew products.

Talking to Thanh Nien , Mr. Bach Khanh Nhut, Permanent Vice President of Vinacas, said: African countries specializing in supplying raw cashew nuts to Vietnam are gradually moving towards self-production and processing of cashew nuts, similar to what factories in Vietnam are doing. They only sell unqualified raw materials to Vietnam if they cannot be processed. Therefore, the raw materials imported from Africa to Vietnam are often low-grade raw cashew nuts. Due to the difficult consumption situation last year, importing enterprises stored goods in warehouses for a long time, leading to a decline in the quality of processed cashew nuts.

Mr. Pham Van Cong, Chairman of Vinacas also confided: "Up to now, maintaining product quality is a vital factor for the Vietnamese cashew industry, because many previous advantages no longer exist, and competitive pressure from African countries is getting bigger every day. Previously, our leadership was still considerate and partly concealed, so they did not publicize the quality issue. But now we have to clarify, even warn about the quality of processed cashew nuts of some businesses. Because the quality is getting worse and worse, the selling price of cashew nuts cannot increase, and cannot be compared with the price of Indian cashew nuts. Our association can only make recommendations, but now there needs to be a stronger solution to rectify this problem, so there needs to be the involvement of local leaders and authorities."

Regarding the export situation, in mid-2023, facing difficulties from both internal and consumer markets, Vinacas proposed adjusting the cashew export turnover target for 2023 to 3.05 billion USD, compared to 3.8 billion USD according to the plan of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. With this plan, Vinacas believes that it is likely to be achieved.

Source link