Cashew exports plunge to two-decade low in 2018-19

Kochi: The Indian cashew industry is facing the double whammy of plunging exports and weak local prices that have hit profitability of the processing units in the country. Exports fell to a two-decade low in 2018-19, down 20 per cent year-on-year to 66,693 tonnes and, in terms of value, down 24 per cent year-on-year to Rs 4,434 crore, according to the data of the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI).

From over 1,00,000 tonnes, the export quantity has fallen steadily in the past few years as Vietnam and other countries held a price advantage over India through lower processing cost. “Our cost of production is around Rs 800-900 per kg. We usually offer discounted price for export and make it up through our domestic sales,’’ said S Kannan, executive director, CEPCI. But last year, domestic sales were hit by an increase in imports of cheaper cashew kernels into the country.

“Roughly over 2,000 tonnes of import have come to the country, pushing down the prices of locally processed nuts,’’ said Kannan.


The commodity is being imported by declaring it as roasted cashew, which carries no duty under free trade agreement or as cattle feed that has nil duty, he said and added that “We have alerted the customs and other authorities that what is coming in are plain cashew wrongly declared as other products.” As a result, he said, imports have gone down but not stopped altogether. Cheaper imported raw nuts for making kernels have also adversely affected the kernel prices. “From around Rs 750 per kg last year, the domestic kernel price has fallen to around Rs 625 per kg,” said K Prakash Rao, managing partner of Kalbavi Cashews in Mangaluru. He said though the prices of raw nuts had halved, the customs in Mangaluru, a cashew hub, arbitrarily fixed the floor price of imported raw cashew almost 30 per cent higher than the present market price, thus eroding the competitiveness of exporters, particularly those using advance licence scheme.