Setting Up a Cashew Nut Factory in Cambodia
Cambodia has become a fast-growing cashew origin. Local processing lets producers capture value instead of exporting raw nuts to neighbouring Vietnam.
Cambodia is one of the fastest-growing raw cashew nut origins, with much of its crop historically exported unprocessed to Vietnam. Setting up a processing factory in Cambodia lets producers and investors capture that value at home. The requirements mirror any modern plant — raw-nut supply, a building with power, water and shell-fired energy, a machine line matched to capacity, labour and financing — with the advantage of abundant local RCN and proximity to Vietnamese machinery and expertise. TTQ supplies, installs and supports plants in Cambodia.
Cambodia grows a great deal of cashew and processes very little of it. The crop crosses into Vietnam as raw nuts, gets shelled there, and is exported as Vietnamese kernel — which is why Cambodian production is hard to find in world statistics and why the value gap is so visible to anyone standing in a Cambodian orchard. That gap is the entire investment case.
The situation, plainly
Large crop, minimal shelling
plantings expanded rapidly through the 2010s and 2020s, concentrated in Kampong Thom, Kratie, Ratanakiri and Preah Vihear. Domestic shelling capacity has not kept pace, so the majority of the harvest leaves unprocessed.
Vietnam is next door
the border is the reason the raw nuts leave and also the reason a Cambodian plant is easy to equip. Machinery, spares and technicians are a day away rather than a container shipment away, which changes what a small plant can realistically maintain.
Buyers already know the origin
Cambodian RCN has an established reputation with Vietnamese processors. A local plant is not introducing a new origin to the market — it is retaining margin on one that already trades.
The seasonality is sharp
harvest runs roughly February to May. A plant buys most of its year’s raw material in a few months, which makes working capital, not machinery, the usual constraint.
Production figures for Cambodia vary widely between sources depending on whether they measure harvest or export — see the note on the production by country page for why we do not publish a single number.
Who you will deal with
| Body | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) | Investment registration and Qualified Investment Project status, which is the route to the available incentives |
| Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) | Agricultural policy, including the national cashew policy and grower support programmes |
| Ministry of Commerce | Export registration, certificates of origin, trade documentation |
| General Department of Customs and Excise | Import of machinery, and the classification questions in our HS code guide |
| Cambodia Cashew Federation (CCF) | Industry body — a practical first contact for grower networks and current market conditions |
Confirm current incentive terms directly with the CDC. Investment regimes change, and any figure quoted second-hand on a machinery supplier’s website should be verified before it enters a business plan.
What a Cambodian plant needs
Power
grid supply is workable in provincial centres but tariffs are high by regional standards. Shell-fired steam covers the heat load, which is most of a cashew plant’s energy — see the shell burner.
A building
the eight stages need a covered, sequenced floor rather than a large shed. Buffer space between drying and peeling matters more than total area.
Labour
available and trainable, and cheaper than Vietnam — which is a large part of why processing there is viable at all. Grading and quality control need supervision, not headcount.
Working capital
the binding constraint. A plant that cannot buy through the February–May window runs at part capacity for a full year of fixed cost.
Sizing a first plant
Match the line to what your catchment actually delivers, not to the national crop. A 5 tonne per shift plant is a serious operation and needs about 1,200 tonnes of raw nuts a year at full running; that is a real sourcing commitment in one province. Start there and add lines as supply and working capital allow — see the turnkey plant tiers and request a project report modelled on your own numbers.
Tell us your province, the tonnage you can realistically buy in a season, and whether you have a building. We will size the line to that rather than to the brochure — and we ship from Ho Chi Minh City, so installation support is a road journey.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cambodia good for cashew processing?
Why does Cambodia export raw nuts to Vietnam?
What is the cashew season in Cambodia?
Who do I register a cashew factory with in Cambodia?
Does TTQ supply plants to Cambodia?
Related reading & machines
Setting Up a Modern Cashew Processing Factory
What it takes to build a modern cashew factory
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Fully Automatic Cashew Processing Plant
From raw nut to sealed kernel — one automated line
Open →Cashew Factory Setup by Country
Local processing, wherever you grow
Open →Talk to a cashew engineer
Tell us your target capacity, grades and location — we’ll come back with a costed proposal.