A cashew orchard in Bình Phước Province’s Bù Gia Mập District. — VNA/VNS Photo

BÌNH PHƯỚC — The southeastern province of Bình Phước has enjoyed significant achievements in producing cashew, earning annual export revenue of more than US$1 billion in recent years.

The country’s largest cashew producing province has 152,000ha of cashew, accounting for half of the country’s total cashew area and 33 per cent of the province’s total farming area, according to its Party Committee.

Of the 152,000ha, ethnic households grow about 50,000ha.

Cashew has helped many poor households, especially ethnic ones, escape poverty.

The province has soil and weather conditions suited for growing cashew.

The province has more than 1,400 small and medium-sized establishments that process cashew and manufacture cashew-related products.

The establishments provide jobs for more than 50,000 labourers.

In the past three years, the province replaced 35,000ha of old cashew trees with new varieties that have a high yield of more than 2.5 tonnes per hectare.

It also has 8,000ha of cashew orchards in which farmers intercrop other crops and breed animals to improve income.

Many cashew growing co-operatives have developed linkages with related stakeholders to develop concentrated farming areas and guarantee outlets and stable prices.

Bù Gia Mập District has five such co-operatives that grow a total of 2,491ha of cashew, while Phú Riềng District has nine such co-operatives with a total of 1,480ha of cashew.

The province has 10 cashew exporting companies co-operating with 24 co-operatives, co-operative groups and farms to grow cashew under organic standards and has 3,500ha of cashew that have been granted US and EU organic certificates.

It has assisted cashew processors to apply food safety quality management such as GMP, HACCP and ISO 22000 and has 273 processors applying these food safety quality management standards.

It exported 205,000 tonnes of cashew products worth $1.3 billion in 2021 and 171,000 tonnes worth $1 billion last year.

The province’s cashew products are exported to more than 50 foreign markets, including the EU, the US, Japan, Australia and China.

Despite these achievements, the cashew sector still faces difficulties such as many processors do not have contracts with farmers to secure stable supply for production, according to the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Many cashew processors have a very small scale and limited financial capacity, it said.

To further develop the cashew sector, Bình Phước should invest more in deep processing to produce diversified cashew products that meet the requirements of consumers, experts said.

The province should replace old cashew trees with new certified varieties to improve the quality, yield and output of the province’s cashew, they said.

Trần Công Khanh, director of the Institute of Agricultural Science for Southern Việt Nam’s cashew research and development centre, said the province should develop model large-scale fields and new-style co-operatives to grow cashew under intensive farming methods which offer a yield of 2.5-3 tonnes per hectare a year.

It should develop linkages among farmers to establish concentrated growing areas that have large output and produce high quality cashew, he said.

It should develop cashew farming models that are granted high quality certificates to improve its cashew quality and value, he said. — VNS