How Vietnam Built a $4.37 Billion Empire on Africa's Raw Cashew

A Case Study in Agricultural Value Extraction, Processing Hegemony, and Africa's Fight to Take Back Its Nut

Africa grows more than 60% of the world's cashew nuts. Vietnam grows less than 10% of what it processes. Yet Vietnam, not Africa, commands the global cashew economy — exporting $4.37 billion worth of processed kernels in 2024 while Africa ships raw nuts across the ocean for a fraction of the return. This is not a story of market dynamics. It is a story of structural extraction — the systematic transfer of agricultural value from the continent that grows the crop to an industrial processor thousands of miles away. Understanding how this happened, who is profiting, and what Africa must do to reclaim its position is one of the defining agribusiness questions of this decade.

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## PART ONE: THE SCALE OF THE TRANSFER

### Africa Grows It. Vietnam Sells It.

In 2023, Vietnamese cashew processing plants imported over 3 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts from various countries, with approximately 2.2 million tonnes coming from Africa — particularly West Africa. [Cptcorp](https://cptcorp.vn/hundreds-of-thousands-of-tons-of-cashews-from-africa-flood-vietnam-making-the-country-a-global-export-giant/) To put that in perspective, Africa's total raw cashew production in 2023 was approximately 3.1 million tonnes. Vietnam absorbed the majority of it.

In 2023, Côte d'Ivoire alone — the world's largest single producer — exported around 849,000 MT of raw cashew nuts, with roughly 81% going to Vietnam and approximately 18% to India. Across West Africa as a whole, more than 80% of raw cashew exports still ended up in Vietnamese or Indian factories. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

Vietnam processed on the order of 2.0 to 2.7 million tonnes of raw cashew nuts per year between 2020 and 2023, combining imports with a domestic crop of only about 300,000 MT. By October 2025, imports had already reached 2.6 million MT, putting total 2025 throughput on track to approach or exceed 3 million tonnes. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

The anatomy of Vietnam's raw material supply in 2024 tells the story clearly:

| African Supplier | July 2024 Import Volume | Share of Vietnam's Total |

|---|---|---|

| Côte d'Ivoire | 118,711 MT | 39.75% |

| Ghana | 61,088 MT | 20.46% |

| Nigeria | 58,463 MT | 19.58% |

| Burkina Faso | 18,876 MT | 6.32% |

Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria collectively continue to play crucial roles as the three largest African suppliers of raw cashew to Vietnam. [Cptcorp](https://cptcorp.vn/export-and-import-data-for-raw-cashew-nuts-and-cashew-kernels-for-july-2024/)

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## PART TWO: THE VALUE MULTIPLICATION

### How Raw Becomes Rich

The mathematics of cashew processing are startling. A raw cashew nut shipped from an African farm generates a fraction of the revenue that the same nut generates once processed and exported from Vietnam.

In 2018, the export price of cashew kernels from India to the European Union was about 3.5 times higher than what was paid to cashew farmers in Côte d'Ivoire — a 250% difference in price. After secondary processing in the EU, the price of the cashew kernels was about 2.5 times higher than when exported from India — and about 8.5 times more than when they left African farms. [UNCTAD](https://unctad.org/news/cashing-cashews-africa-must-add-value-its-nuts)

That 8.5x multiple has only grown. By 2024:

- **African farm-gate price for raw cashew:** approximately $500–700 per tonne

- **Cost, insurance and freight (CNF) price into Vietnam:** approximately $1,065–1,500 per tonne

- **Vietnam's average cashew kernel export price in 2024:** $6,003 per tonne — up 6.1% compared to 2023 [Asemconnectvietnam](https://asemconnectvietnam.gov.vn/default.aspx?ZID1=8&ID8=140807&ID1=2)

The spread between what Africa receives for its raw nut and what Vietnam earns for the processed kernel is, conservatively, a **4x to 6x value multiplier** — with the full farm-to-retail value chain stretching to 8x or higher once European roasting, seasoning, and packaging are included.

Vietnam spent over $2 billion importing raw cashews from international markets in 2023 — and earned over $3.6 billion from exporting 644,135 tonnes of cashew kernels, a 24% increase in volume and 18.1% increase in value compared to the previous year. [Cptcorp](https://cptcorp.vn/hundreds-of-thousands-of-tons-of-cashews-from-africa-flood-vietnam-making-the-country-a-global-export-giant/) The gross margin captured within Vietnam's processing sector on African raw material alone represents billions of dollars in value that could have been retained on African soil.

In 2024, Vietnam's cashew kernel exports reached a record 730,000 tonnes worth $4.37 billion — up 13.3% in volume and 20.2% in value compared to 2023. Vietnam has now been the world's largest cashew exporter for 18 consecutive years and accounts for over 80% of total global cashew kernel export output. [Asemconnectvietnam](https://asemconnectvietnam.gov.vn/default.aspx?ZID1=8&ID8=140807&ID1=2)

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## PART THREE: WHO IS BUYING VIETNAM'S PROCESSED CASHEWS?

### The Global Consumer Market — Built on African Raw Material

Vietnam's five primary cashew export destinations in 2024 were: the United States (approximately 25% of total export value, driven by demand for organic and flavoured cashew products); Europe (20% of export value, with Germany and the Netherlands leading); and the Middle East, which saw an 18% increase in imports, mainly for processed and flavoured products. [SVC Group](https://svc.vn/overview-of-vietnams-cashew-export-market-in-2024-achievements-and-challenges/)

In the first 11 months of 2024, Vietnam exported 179,480 tonnes of cashew kernels to the US market, worth $1.07 billion — up 24.4% in volume and 31.6% in value. Cashew exports to China reached 117,420 tonnes, worth $687.84 million — up 18.9% in volume and 14.4% in value. [Asemconnectvietnam](https://asemconnectvietnam.gov.vn/default.aspx?ZID1=8&ID8=140807&ID1=2)

The Netherlands serves as the largest European transshipment hub for Vietnamese cashews, with $351.39 million worth of products imported, redistributing across Germany, France, Poland, and Belgium. Turkey was the fastest-growing top-10 market in 2024, with over 80% year-on-year volume growth. Germany stands as the top direct European consumer, with $110.77 million in imports, favouring organic and Fairtrade-certified grades. [blogs](https://www.vietnamexportdata.com/blogs/vietnam-cashew-exports-2024-2025-top-exporters-suppliers)

The irony is profound: cashews grown by smallholder farmers in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria are being sold back to European consumers as premium, sustainably branded Vietnamese kernels — with the Vietnamese processor, not the African farmer, capturing the sustainability and origin premium.

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## PART FOUR: AFRICA'S IMPORT PARADOX

### The Continent That Grows the Nut, Buying Back the Processed Product

The most painful dimension of this dynamic is that African consumers are net importers of processed cashew products — buying back in processed form a commodity they produce at scale.

Less than 15% of Africa's cashew nuts are deshelled on the continent. The rest is exported mainly to Asia, where 85% of the world's cashews are deshelled and value is added to the commodity. [UNCTAD](https://unctad.org/news/cashing-cashews-africa-must-add-value-its-nuts)

Historically, over 80% of raw cashew nuts harvested in Africa were exported unprocessed, primarily to India and Vietnam. Local conversion still captures only about 10% of raw nuts, leaving most value addition offshore. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market)

African nuts imports in 2024 — covering cashews, almonds, and other nuts — totalled approximately 70,000 tonnes worth $227 million, with Morocco, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso as the leading importers. Meanwhile, in South Africa, retail sales of nut-based snack bars alone reached ZAR 1.2 billion in 2023, a 14% increase from 2021, with cashews among the dominant ingredients. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market) Much of this retail consumption is sourced from processed Vietnamese and Indian exports.

According to the African Development Bank's 2023 Agri-Processing Investment Report, cashew milk production alone generates three times more revenue per tonne of raw nut than kernel export, yet African processors have barely entered this category commercially. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market)

The structural result is a continent exporting $2.2 billion worth of raw cashew annually while importing processed cashew-derived products at premium retail prices — a double loss on the same commodity.

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## PART FIVE: VIETNAM'S INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE — WHAT AFRICA IS UP AGAINST

Understanding how Vietnam built this dominance is essential to understanding what Africa must replicate.

Vietnam operates approximately 500 large and medium processing plants with full automation ensuring high throughput and quality control. The industry is grouped under VINACAS (Vietnam Cashew Association), working closely with the government on sustainable agriculture and export strategy. [blogs](https://www.vietnamexportdata.com/blogs/vietnam-cashew-exports-2024-2025-top-exporters-suppliers)

Vietnam's processing scale increasingly rests on two pillars of raw supply: West Africa (especially Côte d'Ivoire) and Cambodia, where Vietnamese processors spent approximately $1.0 billion on raw nuts in 2024 to keep factories fed and export contracts intact. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

Vietnam's competitive advantages are formidable: decades of capital investment in processing infrastructure, a government-coordinated industry body, deep relationships with global buyers, certifications (BRC, HACCP, ISO 22000, Fairtrade, organic), and mastery of premium grading — whole white kernels commanding the highest prices globally. Vietnam's average export price of $6,003 per tonne in 2024 reflects not just processing but brand positioning in premium global markets. [Asemconnectvietnam](https://asemconnectvietnam.gov.vn/default.aspx?ID1=2&ZID1=8&ID8=141053)

However, Vietnam's model carries a structural vulnerability: it relies on 60–70% of its raw materials being imported from Africa. Any significant shift in African processing policy creates direct supply risk for Vietnamese factories. [SVC Group](https://svc.vn/overview-of-vietnams-cashew-export-market-in-2024-achievements-and-challenges/) That vulnerability is Africa's leverage.

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## PART SIX: AFRICA'S RISING PROCESSORS — THE COUNTRIES FIGHTING BACK

### Côte d'Ivoire: The Vanguard

Côte d'Ivoire is the most aggressive and advanced case of Africa processing its own cashew.

Côte d'Ivoire has deployed a coordinated suite of policy tools: a fixed minimum farmgate price each season (315 CFA/kg in 2023), an export tax of approximately 98.4 CFA/kg on raw nuts to discourage unprocessed exports, direct subsidies to processors (up to 400 CFA/kg for kernels), tax exemptions on processing equipment and kernel exports, cashew-specific industrial zones, and an innovation centre to train technicians. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

Installed processing capacity climbed from 68,500 MT in 2015 to roughly 350,000 MT in 2024, and to approximately 432,000 MT in early 2025 as new plants came online. Actual processing surged from about 103,000 MT in 2020 to around 345,000 MT in 2024 — utilisation close to 98%. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

Côte d'Ivoire shipped 72,000 MT of cashew kernels in 2024 — more than five times the volume exported in 2020 — placing it firmly as the world's third-largest kernel producer behind Vietnam and India. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

### Ghana: The Incremental Builder

Ghana had about 65,000 MT of installed processing capacity in 2022, and by 2024 processors were handling 45,360 MT — roughly 18% of the national crop. The industry is targeting 85,000 MT by 2026, supported by the "One District, One Factory" initiative and foreign-backed plants. Ghana's Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), created in 2019, introduced minimum producer prices and export permit requirements for unprocessed cashew. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/)

### Tanzania: The East African Front

Tanzania has become a significant East African processing hub, attracting international capital. In December 2023, South Korean firm Mirae Green Chemical Company finalised a $5 million investment for a cashew nut processing and CNSL factory in Tanzania, set to handle 3,000 to 4,000 MT of raw cashews — underscoring the Tanzanian government's push to enhance processed cashew exports. [Mordor Intelligence](https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/africa-cashew-market)

### Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso: The Emerging Tier

Processing capacity in West Africa increased by 45% between 2020 and 2023, with Côte d'Ivoire alone operating over 30 modern processing plants by 2024. This shift has created over 50,000 direct jobs in the sector. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market) Benin has experimented with outright export bans on raw nuts (with mixed results due to smuggling), while Burkina Faso introduced a 2025 export ban that is already tightening global raw nut supply.

### The Processing Capability Ranking (2025 Assessment):

| Country | Processing Status | Capacity (MT) | Processing Rate |

|---|---|---|---|

| Côte d'Ivoire | Leading — scaling rapidly | ~432,000 | ~33% of crop |

| Ghana | Active — growing steadily | ~85,000 (target) | ~18% of crop |

| Tanzania | Active — investment-led | ~25,000+ | ~13% of crop |

| Nigeria | Early stage | Limited | ~5% of crop |

| Benin | Policy-led, volatile | Limited | ~10% of crop |

| Mozambique | Early stage | Limited | ~5% of crop |

| Guinea-Bissau | Minimal | Minimal | <5% of crop |

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## PART SEVEN: THE SKILLS GAP — AFRICA'S INTERNAL CHALLENGE

Policy and infrastructure alone cannot close the gap. Over 60% of workers in Ghanaian processing plants in 2023 had no formal technical certification, leading to average kernel breakage rates exceeding 40% — well above the international benchmark of 25%. This inefficiency reduces export value and increases production costs significantly. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market)

Kernel breakage is not a minor quality issue. Broken cashews fetch $2,000–3,000 per tonne versus $6,000+ for whole white kernels. A 40% breakage rate means African processors are effectively competing at a structural price disadvantage even when they successfully process their own nuts.

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## PART EIGHT: WHAT MUST CHANGE — THE SEVEN IMPERATIVES

**1. Export Tax Architecture Must Be Sustained and Coordinated.** Individual country bans create arbitrage (nuts labelled as Togolese despite Togo having a fraction of the actual crop). After Benin's 2024 ban, raw cashew exports labelled as "Togolese" jumped to 224,000 MT, despite Togo's much smaller real crop. [Rotterdamcommodity](https://rotterdamcommodity.com/west-africa-vietnam-and-cambodia-are-rewriting-the-cashew-map/) A coordinated West African export levy framework — harmonised through ECOWAS — is essential.

**2. Industrial Zone Infrastructure Must Scale.** Côte d'Ivoire's model of dedicated cashew processing zones with subsidised utilities, equipment tax relief, and adjacent training centres is replicable across Ghana, Benin, Tanzania, and Mozambique.

**3. Technical Training Pipelines.** Processing yield is a human skills problem as much as a capital equipment problem. Vocational training in cashew shelling, grading, and quality certification must be embedded in national agricultural colleges.

**4. Certification Must Become Standard, Not Exception.** BRC, HACCP, Fairtrade, and organic certification are the entry ticket to European and North American premium retail — the same markets currently dominated by Vietnamese suppliers. The US imposed a 46% tariff on Vietnamese cashew kernels in April 2025 while keeping Indian kernels at 26% — a policy shift that creates an immediate opening for African certified processors [Asemconnectvietnam](https://asemconnectvietnam.gov.vn/default.aspx?ID1=2&ZID1=8&ID8=141053) to capture US market share.

**5. Value-Added Products Must Be Prioritised.** Roasted and salted kernels, cashew butter, cashew milk, and cashew-based snack bars represent the next tier of value. Cashew milk production generates three times more revenue per tonne of raw nut than standard kernel export. [Market Data Forecast](https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/africa-cashew-market) African processors must not stop at kernel — they must reach the consumer.

**6. African Consumption Must Be Activated.** The domestic African cashew market was valued at $890 million in 2024 — a 19% increase on the prior year. [IndexBox](https://www.indexbox.io/blog/cashew-nut-africa-market-overview-2024-3/) Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire are the two largest domestic consuming markets. Building intra-African branded cashew consumption (snacks, beverages, food ingredients) creates a captive demand base that reduces dependency on volatile export pricing.

**7. Pan-African Trade Must Replace External Dependency.** Intra-African trade in cashews is currently only 1,700 tonnes compared to 2.1 million tonnes of external exports. [IndexBox](https://www.indexbox.io/blog/cashew-nut-africa-market-overview-2024-6/) The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is the policy vehicle — but processors need harmonised quality standards, phytosanitary protocols, and preferential tariff schedules to make regional cashew trade commercially viable.

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## CONCLUSION: THE NUT THAT BUILT ANOTHER COUNTRY'S ECONOMY

The Vietnamese cashew processing heist is not the result of dishonesty. It is the result of a vacuum. When Africa failed to invest in processing infrastructure, Vietnam stepped in with capital, organisation, and long-term industrial strategy. The result is a commodity relationship in which Africa supplies the raw material and Asia captures the wealth — a pattern as old as colonial trade and just as consequential.

The data is unambiguous: Africa grows over 60% of the world's cashews and retains less than 15% of the processed value. Vietnam grows under 10% of the raw nuts it processes and commands over 80% of global kernel exports. The farm-gate price paid to an Ivorian farmer is 8.5 times less than the price a European consumer pays for the same nut.

But the shift has begun. Côte d'Ivoire's processed kernel volume grew more than five times in four years. Ghana, Tanzania, and others are building capacity. The US tariff shock of April 2025 has cracked open a commercial window for African processors to enter American retail. And African consumers themselves — a rapidly urbanising, health-conscious middle class — represent a domestic market that could anchor regional cashew processing independent of volatile global dynamics.

The question is no longer whether Africa can process its own cashew. It is whether Africa will move fast enough, cohesively enough, and at scale enough to claim the billions in value that have been flowing east for decades.

**The nut is African. The wealth should be too.**

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Africa Brew Brief | RIC Brands — RIC Brands' intelligence platform tracking African agribusiness, coffee trade, and origin stories. Follow the brief: https://share.google/vnz8ZqMf6ujiKPr4j | wilbert@ricbrands.com*