Sourcing Spotlight: Cambodia — Vietnam cashew's closest origin

• Geography: ~1,200 km shared border — lowest logistics cost (vs Africa)
• Harvest window: January to April — earlier than Vietnam (March to May) → keeps Vietnamese factories fed continuously
• Genetic similarity: Cambodian cashew varieties are close to Vietnamese → high quality consistency
• No sea shipping: truck via Moc Bai / Bavet border → 2-3 days from farm to HCM factory

• Kampong Thom (central) — largest cashew province
• Kratie (north-central) — quality reputation
• Ratanakiri (northeast) — emerging area

Data from the Hotanuts archive reveals an unstable trend:

• 2020: Vietnam imported ~220k tons from Cambodia
• 2021: 1 million tons (+4.6× vs 2020) — COVID-era bubble as Cambodia cleared stocks
• First 7 months 2022: 670k tons (-37% YoY) [VOV, archive article #4]
• Cambodian planted area: cut by 100k ha in two years, down to ~700k ha
• Cambodian Cashew Association president Aun Silot has publicly expressed concern about the decline

The implication: Cambodian supply is shrinking over the long run — this is not a stable source for 2026-2030 forecasting.

Given the supply risk, why does Hotanuts continue?

1. Harvest-timing arbitrage: Cambodia harvests January-April → Hotanuts gets raw before Vietnam's season → continuous feed for Q1-Q2 kernel export
2. Logistics cost: truck CPC→HCM is roughly 40% cheaper per ton than sea shipping CIV→HCM
3. Quality match: similar varieties mean consistent processing output
4. Diversification: Hotanuts blends Cambodia + CIV + Vietnam local → reduces single-origin risk

If a buyer specifies "no Cambodia origin" (uncommon but does happen):

1. Social concern: some EU buyers are cautious about Cambodian labor/ethical standards
2. Lower traceability than CIV: no ACA-equivalent framework for Cambodia
3. Quality variance: Cambodian cashew can carry higher moisture if harvest coincides with rain
4. Shrinking supply: Cambodia is not a long-term secure source

Hotanuts response: we accept "exclude CPC origin" or "single-origin CIV-only" specifications — premium pricing applies.

• Traceability: every Cambodia lot is logged at Moc Bai border with Certificate of Origin + inspection
• Transparency: if a buyer asks "how much Cambodia in this lot?", we tell you the percentage
• Upgrade option: if a long-term buyer wants zero-Cambodia → we pivot to CIV + Vietnam only (cost typically +8-12% per ton)