After a slowdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the cashew market has seen a significant recovery over the past two weeks. Most processing plants, particularly in Vietnam and India, have resumed operations, leading to an improvement in demand for raw African cashew nuts and prices both globally and among local producers, the N'kalô specialist emphasizes.

In several countries in the sub-region, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Mali, the market is bustling with increased competition from buyers, and in some cases, prices are rising slightly, approaching the minimum price set at the start of the season. This is not the case in the world's leading producer, Côte d'Ivoire, where only purchases of 200,000 tonnes under the government program respect the official price of FCFA 400 per kilo. Producer stocks are high, and cash needs are significant. In some countries, such as Gambia and Senegal, the market is still sluggish, while in Guinea-Bissau, where a state of emergency is still in effect, the marketing season has not yet officially opened.

A beautiful request for almonds

Cashew kernels appear to be more than resilient to the Covid-19 pandemic. Kernel imports from the two main markets, the United States and Europe, in January and February were up 16.2% and 13.8% respectively compared to the same period in 2019. This trend continued into March, according to export statistics from the world's leading processor, Vietnam. Indeed, according to customs statistics, kernel exports increased by 9% to 94,728 tonnes in the first quarter of 2020. The most significant increases were to Canada (+57%), the Netherlands (+54%), Germany (+39%), the United States (+35%), as well as Japan and the United Arab Emirates, but the quantities were smaller, around 1,000 tonnes compared to 34,500 tonnes for the United States. On the other hand, exports to China, one of the top three destinations for Vietnamese almonds, fell by 39% to 6,569 tonnes. However, it appears that Chinese buyers are once again present in the market.

With sustained demand, almond prices are rising. And, N'kalô points out, the Asian industry is tentatively starting to place orders for raw African cashew nuts.

A market which is therefore taking a bullish turn but qualifies n’kalô « Although the increase is expected to remain moderate in the coming weeks because producers are holding large stocks and supply will remain high at least until mid-May, a sharp price increase at the end of the campaign seems increasingly likely.» ».