| The cashew market has weakened a bit over the past weeks both for RCN and Kernel. On RCN this has mainly to do with Vietnamese and Indian processors being rather hesitant to buy at high rates. Overall Vietnam’s West African imports are down. This is also caused by strong supplies from Cambodia and East Africa. The uncertainty about US tariffs has also added to the pressure. Processing on the other hand is growing in Africa, which is a good development. Last week there was also an announcement about a machine manufacturer to open a center of assembly. These are great developments to make sure that the African industry can further develop. On the kernel side we have seen prices from Vietnam to come down a bit due to pressure on cashflow. Overall demand remains steady. African cashew processors continue to secure premium prices as the quality delivered from Africa is really appreciated. It is great to see that more and more customers are starting to value African quality! On the organic side there is quite a mixed picture. On the one hand prices in Vietnam are pretty competitive, but there have been some concerns due to new guidelines making the rejection rate a lot higher. From Africa on the other side there are some concerns about total availability. Regulations have made it also here more difficult for growers to be certified and consequently less product was certified. |
