Vietnam is projected to export 110,000 tonnes of shelled cashew nuts this year, a rise of 6.7 percent from last year, state media said on Monday. Vietnam is the world's second biggest exporter of cashew nuts after India. The Vietnam Economic Times newspaper quoted figures from the Vietnam Cashew Association as saying domestic processors would strive to buy up to 370,000 tonnes of raw cashew from local farmers this year, up from 350,000 tonnes last year.

They would also import between 80,000 tonnes and 100,000 tonnes of the raw nuts for processing so as to fulfil the export projection set by the industry, the paper said. Last year Vietnam also bought 50,000 tonnes of raw cashew, mainly from Africa.

Officials of the association could not be reached for comment.

Last year Vietnam earned $410 million from the export of 107,000 tonnes of shelled cashew, 41 percent of which to the US market, followed by 20 percent to China while 10 percent went to Australia and 8 percent to the Netherlands, industry reports said.

Copyright Reuters, 2005