Vietnam just shipped its way into a record. In 2025 the country's cashew exports hit $5.23 billion on roughly 766,600 tonnes of kernels, a 20.4% jump in value over 2024 that locked the industry inside the "$5-billion club" (source). The nut travels under HS code 0801. The money sits in 080132, shelled cashew kernels.
Cashew export data is the part most exporters never open. The buyers behind that record — importers in Shanghai, New Jersey, Rotterdam and Dubai — appear in shipment records by name, volume and frequency. Ranked, that pile becomes a prospect list. Here is the 2026 cashew map: who exports, who buys, and how to read the records before you wire a deposit.
The 30-second version
- Vietnam's 2025 cashew exports hit a record $5.23 billion on 766,600 tonnes, up 20.4% in value year on year (source).
- Vietnam ships about 80% of the world's cashew kernels — yet imports ~3 million tonnes of raw nuts worth $4.5 billion to feed its processors (source).
- China ($1.115B) overtook the USA ($975M) as the top buyer in 2025; the Netherlands ($495M) is Europe's gateway (source).
- Cashews trade under HS 0801: 080131 = raw in-shell nuts (RCN), 080132 = shelled kernels (source).
- India exported $337.14 million of kernels in FY2024-25, with the UAE its top market at $80.79M (23.96%) (source).
Which country exports the most cashews?
Vietnam, by a wide margin. It shipped a record $5.23 billion of kernels in 2025 and supplies roughly 80% of the world's exported cashew kernels (source). Côte d'Ivoire leads raw in-shell (RCN) production; India is the second major kernel exporter.
Cashews grow in one part of the world and get cracked open in another. West Africa and the coasts of India and Southeast Asia grow the raw crop. Vietnam spent fifteen years turning itself into the factory floor of the trade, with processing concentrated in the southern province of Binh Phuoc, the country's cashew capital.
The 2025 numbers show why that position matters. Kernel exports of $5.23 billion marked a second straight record year (source), and for the first time in over a decade the biggest buyer was not the United States. When one country controls four-fifths of finished supply, its shipment records become the master list of who buys cashews anywhere.
Where cashew export data says the buyers are
Volume tells you where the money moves. In 2025 China displaced the United States as Vietnam's largest cashew customer, buying $1.115 billion worth against the USA's $975 million, a shift driven by health-conscious Chinese snacking and festival-season stockpiling (source). The Netherlands ($495 million) sits third as Europe's re-export gateway, feeding Germany, France and the wider EU. Germany and the UAE round out Vietnam's top five.
Price moved too. The average Vietnamese kernel fetched about $6,711 a tonne across 2025, up nearly 18% year on year as raw-material costs climbed (source). India's buyer mix skews to the Gulf and Japan: the UAE alone took $80.79 million, 23.96% of India's kernel exports, ahead of Japan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and the USA (source). Different origins, overlapping buyers. Every one of them leaves a trail.
Grade matters as much as geography. Most retail contracts spec W320 wholes, the workhorse grade at roughly 320 kernels to a pound; when a shipment description names the grade, you learn what an importer actually stocks, not just how much of it.
West Africa grows the raw nut; Asia shells it and sells it. Whoever reads the shipment trail first — origin, volume, buyer — books the order.
HS codes in cashew export data: 080131 vs 080132
Cashews live under HS heading 0801, and the whole industry turns on two subheadings. 080131 covers raw cashew nuts in shell — RCN, the unprocessed crop. 080132 covers shelled cashew kernels, the finished product that ends up in jars and trail mix. New to code-based searching? Our guide to HS codes breaks it down.
| HS code | Covers | Main origins |
|---|---|---|
| 080131 | Raw cashew nuts in shell (RCN) | Côte d'Ivoire, Cambodia, Nigeria, Ghana |
| 080132 | Shelled cashew kernels (wholes, splits, pieces) | Vietnam, India |
That split defines the supply chain. Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania grow the raw nut; Asia does the cracking. In 2025 Vietnam spent a record $4.5 billion importing about 3 million tonnes of RCN (source), with 25.3% of that raw supply coming from Côte d'Ivoire and Cambodia, Nigeria and Ghana filling most of the rest (source). Domestic Vietnamese supply covers only about 10% of processing capacity. The rest arrives by ship. That dependency is why RCN flows matter: a poor harvest in Abidjan moves kernel prices in Rotterdam. Track 080131 for the raw deal, 080132 for finished kernels — mixing them up means reading the wrong market.
India: a processing giant repositioning
India is the other historic cashew powerhouse, a processor-exporter built on importing African RCN, shelling it in clusters like Kollam in Kerala and Panruti in Tamil Nadu, and shipping kernels worldwide. In FY2024-25 it exported roughly $337.14 million of cashew kernels across about 79,030 tonnes (source, APEDA), with the UAE, Japan, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia as anchor markets (source).
Growth has plateaued as Vietnam scales and African origins add their own processing capacity. But India's buyer relationships across the Gulf, Japan and Europe run deep, and for Indian cashew exporters the 2026 edge is targeting: mirrored licensed trade data helps exporters find the specific overseas buyers already importing kernels and grow exports with data-backed outreach instead of guesswork. For the wider category playbook, see our food and agro export-data guide.
How to find cashew buyers with ShipScout
ShipScout is a global trade-intelligence platform, an affordable alternative to Panjiva and ImportGenius, sitting on 11 billion-plus shipment records across 240+ countries. Cashew export data on that scale turns "I process great kernels" into "here are 200 cashew importers ranked by volume" in an afternoon:
- Search by HS code 080132. Pull every shelled-kernel shipment and see the importers, their counterparties and how often they buy. Public customs and bill-of-lading records make this routine for US and EU trade lanes; start with our customs-data walkthrough.
- Rank importers by volume in a target market. Don't pitch a boutique roaster when a US importer is landing containers every month. Sort by tonnage and call the top of the list first; Vietnam's exporter base shows who already supplies those buyers.
- Vet the supplier's real trade record. Before you wire a deposit on RCN or kernels, check the counterparty's actual shipment history. Our supplier-verification guide shows what to confirm.
- Reach the decision-makers. Pair the ranked company list with contact intelligence (where available) to get past the generic info@ inbox and in front of the buyer.
Working cashew export data beats blind outreach every time: instead of guessing which distributor might want cashews, you work a list of buyers already importing them, ranked by how much they move. Whether you trade kernels, raw cashew nuts or roasted and organic lines, the buyer list is already written. You just need to open it. Start a free trial and search HS code 080132 to see who's importing cashew kernels right now.
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