There are usually two harvests, an earlier one from January to March and a second one starting in April. This year, there was a gap before the April harvest due to delayed rains, and when this arrived, it coincided with a very rainy season, resulting in greater post-harvest losses and poorer quality. In contrast, some neighboring countries, Burkina Faso and Togo, were hit by droughts that had a much greater impact on volumes than in Côte d'Ivoire. RCN has been exported to Vietnam since the beginning of the season. Local processors in Côte d'Ivoire have purchased around 300,000 tons of RCN, while it is estimated that around 500,000 tons have been exported to Vietnam so far. However, at the end of the season at the end of May, an export ban was imposed on RCN, affecting around 160,000 tons of nuts marked for export.
Of this, 20 % (30,000 tons) was reserved by the government for local processors. This ban has caused some disruption to the market, but has now been lifted effective June 10. We must mention that Vietnam is also buying RCN from other countries such as Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, where the harvests are said to be good. On the other hand, countries like Burkina and Togo seem to be the most affected by the drought, which affects their RCN production.
Overall, the situation on the cashew nut market in Côte d'Ivoire is gradually improving as the ban has been lifted and exports have resumed. The country remains an important player in the global cashew nut industry. The country's processing capacity is now significant and within five years it has become a credible alternative to Vietnam, which is only three weeks away from Europe, as an exporter of processed kernels.
Director Global Partner
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