Côte d'Ivoire exported a record 44,403 tons of
cashew kernels during the first five months of 2026, according to data published on Tuesday, June 30, by agricultural advisory firm N'kalô. The total was up 51% from the same period last year, reflecting continued growth in the country's processing industry.
The export total established a new national record, making Côte d'Ivoire the world's second-largest exporter of cashew kernels during the period, behind Vietnam. It was also the only country among the four leading exporters, which include India and Brazil, to increase sales in the first five months of the year. According to N'kalô, the gains reflected a recovery in European imports even as demand from the Middle East weakened amid regional tensions.
Processing Industry Gains Momentum
The strong performance reflects the expansion of the country's processing industry, which is handling a growing share of domestic production.
This year, the Cotton and Cashew Council (CCA) set aside February and March exclusively for domestic processors, departing from previous years when exports of raw cashew nuts were generally authorized from February onward.
Taking advantage of that window, processors increased purchases from Ivorian producers to keep their factories supplied for the rest of the year. Although the volumes purchased have not been disclosed, N'kalô said the stronger domestic demand caused exports of raw cashew nuts to fall to 256,000 tons during the first five months of 2026, down from 390,000 tons in the same period a year earlier.
In May, the advisory firm said several market sources had confirmed that domestic sales of raw cashew nuts had already exceeded one million tons and that local processors had absorbed more than 60% of those volumes.
Domestic demand has remained strong over the past decade, as private investment and government incentives have expanded the country's processing industry. Support measures include an export bonus of CFA400 ($0.70) per kilogram of exported kernels, along with exemptions from customs duties and value-added tax on industrial equipment and imported spare parts used in processing.
The number of operating processing plants has more than doubled over the past decade, rising from 17 in 2016 to 37 in 2025, while total installed processing capacity has reached 830,000 tons.
Value Addition Remains a Challenge
Despite that progress, the sector still faces a major structural challenge: its dependence on the Vietnamese market.
Vietnam remains the dominant force in the global cashew trade, importing 2.49 million tons in 2024, or about 70% of global trade. Over the past decade, it has also become the main destination for semi-processed, unpeeled cashew kernels, known as borma kernels, exported from Côte d'Ivoire and other West African countries.
Although no official data are available for that semi-finished product, N'kalô estimates that Vietnam alone accounted for nearly one third of Côte d'Ivoire's kernel exports, with shipments surging 160% to 14,410 tons. Vietnam retains a cost advantage in the final stages of processing, from peeling through packaging finished products. Importing semi-processed kernels instead of raw nuts also reduces costs for Vietnamese processors. For Côte d'Ivoire, however, the trend risks creating a new form of dependence.
For decades, the cashew trade has followed a well-established pattern. African-grown nuts are exported in raw form, processed in India or Vietnam, and then re-exported to Europe and North America, where they are roasted, salted, packaged and sold as finished products.
Although the expansion of cashew processing in Africa may appear to signal a genuine shift, rising exports of borma kernels to Vietnam could instead reproduce the same structural imbalances.
Rather than reshaping the value chain, the trend could keep African countries concentrated in lower-margin segments, with undercapitalized factories, a relatively low-skilled workforce and rapid capital turnover, leaving the distribution of value across the supply chain largely unchanged.
Jim Fitzpatrick, a global cashew industry expert, told Ecofin Agency that exporting borma kernels to Vietnam does little to build an African identity for the product because the kernels are further processed there before being shipped to international markets as Vietnamese products. He said that without better-designed working capital solutions, West African processors would likely remain dependant to Vietnam, meaning the region would struggle to develop the higher-value, job-creating cashew industry it has long sought.
