Camcashew, a joint venture between a Cambodian and Malaysian firms, signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Naroo Marine Company Limited yesterday with the aim of exporting 10,000 tonnes of processed cashew nut next year. According to Syaiful Hazreen, director of Camcashew, the two firms has reserve $100mn, $80mn of which will be spent to purchase 40,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts while the remaining $20mn will be spent on purchasing a 400-hectare plot of land and machinery for processing the raw kernels. To meet the export requirements, Camcashew intends to sign supply contract with cashew farmer associations in the provinces Kampong Thom, Kampong Cham, Kratie, Ratankiri, and Preah Vihear, which hold a total of 30,000 hectares of cashew fields. According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Cambodia produces a total of about 104,000 tonnes of raw cashews annually. In the first 11 months of 2017, Cambodia exported 71,293 tonnes of raw cashews to Vietnam, Thailand, China, and India, with Vietnam alone absorbing 98% of these exports. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)