Golden Cashew Festival - unlocking value, elevating Vietnamese cashews

With the theme “Unlocking Value - Elevating Vietnamese Cashews,” the Dong Nai City Golden Cashew Festival 2026 was held from May 22 to 24 at the Golden Cashew Farm (Dong Tam Commune, Dong Nai City). The event serves as an opportunity to promote the image of the land, the people, and the Dong Nai cashew brand to domestic and international friends. It is also an occasion to boost trade promotion, investment connections, market expansion, and the development of agricultural tourism.

The team from Phu Rieng Commune won second prize in the culinary competition themed “Flavors of the Three Regions – The Story of the Cashew Tree.” Photo: Nguyen Que

The Golden Cashew Festival is not merely an event but is gradually becoming a signature festival imbued with local identity; a place that brings together the essence of agriculture, culture, tourism, trade, and the aspiration to develop the cashew industry of Dong Nai in the new era.

Attracting visitors to the “cashew capital”

The Golden Cashew Festival featured 20 booths from communes with large-scale cashew-growing areas in the city, and 40 booths from enterprises engaged in cashew production and trading, as well as machinery, equipment, and agricultural materials serving cashew production and processing. The festival takes place from May 22 to 24 with a series of special activities such as: a beautiful booth competition; a culinary competition themed “Flavors of the Three Regions - The Story of the Cashew Tree”; cultural exchange and folk art performances; conferences and scientific seminars on sustainable cashew industry development and international cashew trade; honoring outstanding individuals in cashew production and business, and expressing gratitude to enterprises, entrepreneurs and benefactors who have accompanied and sponsored the program.

Dong Nai City currently has more than 176 thousand hectares of cashew plantations, accounting for more than 50% of the country’s total cashew-growing area, concentrated mainly in communes and wards such as Bu Gia Map, Dak O, Dak Nhau, Phu Nghia, Phu Trung, Dong Tam, Bu Dang, Tho Son, Xuan Hoa, Xuan Loc, and Dinh Quan. At the same time, the city also has the country’s largest number of enterprises and facilities involved in cashew trading, processing, and export, with products considered among the best in quality.

The cashew tree has long been closely associated with the people of Dong Nai and was once regarded as a poverty reduction crop for ethnic minority communities in the area. Through their attachment to the cashew tree, local people have created many products processed from cashews. Fresh cashew apples are used to prepare dishes, cashew wine, cashew juice, and cashew fish sauce. Cashew nut shells are valuable industrial by-products used in the production of plastics, paints, and adhesives, as well as a high-quality biomass fuel source. Cashew kernels are a key agricultural export product that has helped Vietnam maintain the world’s No. 1 position in cashew processing and export for many consecutive years, with export turnover in 2025 surpassing the record milestone of USD 5 billion.

Tran Tan, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Vinh Phuc Joint Stock Company (Dong Tam Commune), the enterprise investing in the Golden Cashew Farm where the festival is held, said that the farm covers more than 300 hectares, including 60 hectares of cashew trees that are around 40-50 years old, with many ancient trees having beautiful shapes. According to him, the cashew tree not only produces export products but also contributes to a clean and green environment.

The culinary competition themed “Flavors of the Three Regions - The Story of the Cashew Tree” is a highlight of the Golden Cashew Festival. Photo: Binh Nguyen

“After more than 30 years attached to the cashew tree, I have a very different perspective that tourism can be developed under cashew canopies. From that idea, we realized tourism activities should be incorporated into the cashew industry’s value chain. We have a rich history surrounding the cashew tree and traditional cashew processing crafts, with unique cultural beauty, so it is necessary to develop tourism by exploiting the cultural space of these crafts. We have collected many artifacts and beautiful paintings depicting the skills of artisans in the cashew industry to build a cashew museum. We hope the cashew industry will have a Vietnamese Cashew Day, a founder of the cashew craft, and traditional cashew festivals associated with folk activities and folk dances about cashews. Therefore, our enterprise has registered to host the 2026 Golden Cashew Festival of Dong Nai City…”, Tran Tan expressed.

An opportunity to promote Dong Nai cashews

The goal of organizing the Golden Cashew Festival is to affirm the role of the cashew industry in the city’s agricultural economy, while creating a forum for enterprises, production facilities, cooperatives, and farmers to meet, sign cooperation agreements, expand markets, and access modern technologies.

Member of the Standing Board of the City Party Committee and Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai City People’s Committee NGUYEN TUAN ANH, Head of the Organizing Board of the 2026 Golden Cashew Festival of Dong Nai City, affirmed: For generations, the cashew tree has been closely attached to the land and people of Dong Nai; it has become an export commodity with strong standing, creating jobs for tens of thousands of workers and contributing positively to the agricultural economy, rural economy and export turnover of the locality and the country. Every cashew nut brought to market is the crystallization of the land, climate, labor, diligence, creativity, cultural traditions, and aspirations of Dong Nai farmers. From a small cashew nut, Dong Nai can tell a great story: a story of green agriculture, deep processing, a circular economy, agricultural tourism, local identity, and aspirations to reach the world.

Tran Thi Tuyet Mai, Director of Minh Quyen Production Trading Service Company Limited in Phu Rieng Commune, said that the commune has a large cashew-growing area and produces fragrant, high-quality cashews. The enterprise has found success with products such as salted roasted cashews and garlic chili roasted cashews, and is now introducing cashew milk products to the market. Since their launch, the new products have drawn strong consumer interest and been well-received. By participating in the Golden Cashew Festival, the enterprise hopes to promote its processed cashew products more widely to consumers. Foreign enterprises visiting the booth were very interested in tasting the products, learning more about them, and discussing potential cooperation opportunities.

Discussing another opportunity to participate in the Golden Cashew Festival, Pham Thi Trang, Director of Me Ro Clean Food Co., Ltd., in Binh Tan Commune, said the enterprise currently sells 30 products through e-commerce channels. By joining the Golden Cashew Festival and hosting livestream sales, the enterprise hopes to widely promote and introduce a new, highly effective business and product distribution model to farmers and cooperatives. Drawing on years of experience selling products through e-commerce channels, she said farmers should learn to livestream sales of fresh fruit directly from their home gardens, as customers today have developed the habit of shopping online and enjoy buying products while supporting farmers who sell directly through livestreams from their gardens. The investment cost for livestream sales equipment is not too high. Meanwhile, sales techniques and experience can be supported by AI (artificial intelligence) or easily learned through the many online guidance resources available to farmers.

By: Binh Nguyen - Translated by: Diec Quyen, Minho