[Tanzania]: Tanzania set to harvest about 300,000 tonnes of cashew nuts: official

Sep. 21, 2019

DAR ES SALAAM, - A Tanzanian government senior official on Friday launched the 2019/2020 cashew nuts trading season, saying the country is projected to harvest some 300,000 tonnes.

Japhet Hasunga, the east African nation's Minister for Agriculture, said the projected harvests of the cash crop was 76,000 tonnes more than that harvested in the 2018/2019 season.

He said the trading season will start on Sept. 30, and he hastened to highlight challenges and achievements recorded in the 2018/2019 season and strategies set for the 2019/2020 season.

Hasunga advised citizens and foreign players who wanted to take part in the cashew nuts trading business to undergo official registration.

The official said, "They should register in the ministry's system, providing basic information including the amount of cashew nuts they expected to buy and how they intended to make the payments."

Hasunga said buyers should deposit significant amounts of funds as a guarantee of payment whenever they emerged winners during auctions.

He added that the buyers were also required to prepare logistics for immediate transportation of purchased cashew nuts from warehouses in order to leave room to incoming produce.

Hasunga said unregistered cashew nuts dealers were strictly prohibited, warning that those who will be caught participating in buying the crop without registration will be prosecuted in accordance with the law. Enditem

Reporters
Source: Xin Hua

[Vietnam] [Thailand]: Customers' preference helps Vietnamese foods foray deeper into Thai market

Sep. 20, 2019

Coffee, cashew and some fruit from Vietnam are tastier, Thai consumers say as Vietnamese foods make inroads into a tough market.

Dragon fruits prepared to be exported from the southern Binh Thuan Province. Photo by Shutterstock/Xuanhuongho.

The Tops Market supermarket chain, which has 10 outlets in Bangkok, imports about 500 items from Vietnam, with instant pho and coffee the best selling goods.

"Our imports from Vietnam rise about 10 percent a year. Pho has a similar flavor to Thai traditional noodles therefore it is easily accepted. Vietnamese dragon fruits are sweeter than that of Thailand and thus sell well," Pimjai Navanukroh, director of the chain, said at a recent event.

A Tops Market outlet in Huai Khwang District to the east of central Bangkok sells 100-200 Vietnamese instant noodles packs and 50 kilograms of Vietnamese dragon fruits a day.

"I usually buy Vietnamese foods, especially coffee because of its distinct flavor and reasonable price," said Pumipat Chaisom, a customer at the supermarket.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said that the export of agriculture and food products to Thailand has seen positive growth in recent years despite strong competition from domestic produce.

However, the number of Vietnamese items in Thai supermarkets has remained limited. Industry insiders say that exporting to Thailand requires patience and perseverance because it takes a long time to negotiate and obtain permits for products that the Thai government has limited imports of, to protect local production.

Nguyen Huynh Phu Lam, director of cashew exporting firm Hai Binh Gia Lai, said that it took eight months for his company to complete all procedures to export its first 10,000 packs of cashew to Thailand.

"It’s a small number, but as Thailand is far ahead of Vietnam in the agriculture industry, this can be considered a success."

Nick Reitmeier, vice president of Central Food Retail, which operates Tops Market, said that number of Vietnamese goods in Thailand has been rising by about 6-8 percent a year in the last four years. He expects the Vietnamese food division in his company to rise by 40-50 percent a year.

"People have told me that Vietnamese dragon fruits and cashew are better than Thai products. Vietnam has good products, what’s important is marketing it so more people know about them," Reitmeier said.

Paul Le, vice president of Central Groups’ export-import division in Vietnam, said that to increase exports to Thailand, Vietnamese firms need to maintain the originality of their products, as well as improve packaging, like adding Thai description, for instance.

Vietnam’s exports to Thailand in the first seven months of 2019 rose 1.5 percent year-on-year to $3.2 billion, according to Vietnam Customs.

Vien Thong

Nguồn: VNExpress

[Uganda]: Cashew nut suppliers stuck with seedlings

Sep. 19, 2019

Several nursery bed owners in Teso, Lango, Acholi and West Nile sub-regions are counting losses after failing to find market for their cashew nut seedlings.

In losses. Mr Samuel Okello, a cashew nut grower from Soroti Town, is stuck with more than 30,000 seedlings. PHOTO BY SIMON NAULELE 

The suppliers said early this year, they received information that National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads) through Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) would transfer most of the funds to meant for supplying orange and mango seedlings to cashew nuts.

“There was a campaign in 2017 that OWC was to shift from growing of orange, mango seedlings to cashew nuts, so we decided to invest in the project but lately, officials from OWC claim there was no such a move,” Mr Samuel Okello, a farmer in Soroti Town, said.

Mr Okello said he bought 60 kilogrammes of clone cashew nut seeds from Tanzania at Shs150,000 each but is now stuck with more than 30,000 cashew nut seedlings.

“I received the seed in March this year, I opened up nurseries here (Soroti) and another in Orungo in Amuria, with hope to supply Naads, but I have now made a loss of more than Shs15m,” he said.

Mr Robert Odongo, another farmer, is stuck with 13,000 cashew seedlings despite the fact that they are in different nursery beds across towns.

Mr Charles Aben, the national coordinator for Naads secretariat, told Daily Monitor that the project is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture through Naads, but denied claims that the secretariat encouraged people to grow the seedlings.

Mr Aben said the project only targeted to buy 160,000 cashew nut seedlings at Shs1b from the cattle corridor belt, which comprises Teso, Lango, Acholi, West Nile, Nakasongola.

He said agronomic experts were sent to verify the nursery beds but found that out of 1.8 million seedlings, majority were not clone cashews, adding that the contract verification was done in partnership with the Uganda National Cashew nut Association.

“We are lobbying for more money, the current budget is small, and with the procurement process, that money (Shs1b) cannot do much,” he said.

Mr Aben added that the secretariat is not able to also buy improved cassava cuttings for farmers, saying the little money available will kept for next year, when more funds will be expected.

Recently, Lt Gen Charles Angina, the deputy coordinator for OWC said, he was not aware of a programme aimed at buying cashew nut seedlings.

By GEORGE MURON & SIMON PETER EMWAM

Source: Daily Monitor

[India]: Tirupati temple laddus may prove a blessing for Kerala’s cashew industry

Sep. 20, 2019

Kerala is in talks with the AP govt to supply over 90 tonnes of cashew nuts every month to the state-run Tirupati temple. 

The cashew industry of the world was once headquartered in Kerala’s Kollam

The Kerala government has been in talks with the Andhra Pradesh government to reach an exclusive supply deal for cashew nuts to Tirupati temple. (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams website)

BENGALURU : The delicious laddoos from one of the world’s richest temples may soon help India’s only communist chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala, revive the fortunes of the state’s ailing cashew industry, which has been bleeding for years.

The laddoos, distributed among the tens of millions of pilgrims visiting the 5,000-year-old Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, are a delicacy. The ingredients include gram flour, sugar, flour, ghee and spices. More importantly, they are stuffed with cashew nuts, which is turning out to be a blessing for Kerala.

For five months, the Kerala government has been in talks with the Andhra Pradesh government, which runs the hill shrine through a board of trustees, for an exclusive deal to supply cashew nuts to the temple. The Tirupati temple usually sources ingredients through a tendering process involving private players. It needs about 3,000kg of cashew nuts every day to prepare the laddoos.

The talks have entered its final stage and an agreement will be signed soon, said Kerala’s minister for fisheries and cashew industry, J. Mercykutty Amma. Once the agreement is signed, Kerala will start supplying more than 90 tonnes of cashew nuts every month, or at least, 1,000 tonnes every year, she said.

Kerala’s Kollam, a southern port city, was once recognised as the cashew industry headquarters of the world. It was first introduced by the Portuguese spice traders in the 16th century. The fortunes from Kerala’s cashew trade helped the state reach several major milestones—the money went into funding some of the earliest public libraries and hotels in Kollam, and funded the movies of Dadasaheb Phalke Award-winning director Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Then, crisis struck—labour unions resisted automation despite rising competition, besides a fall in prices and export trade restrictions. Kerala’s cashew industry is now in the red, having lost out to Vietnam, which increased production through automation. Today, more than 300,000 cashew plantation workers, mostly women, are threatened with job losses.

If the deal with the hill shrine goes through, the biggest beneficiary will be public-sector giant Kerala State Cashew Development Corp. Ltd (KSCDCL), headquartered in Kollam, which employs 12,000 people but has been making huge losses. The firm, according to an earlier internal audit, loses more money than it makes everyday, amounting to ₹2 crore for every 10 days.

“This deal will be a huge relief," said Rajesh Ramakrishnan, managing director, KSCDCL. “Entire industry is going through a very deep crisis. Some 800 private cashew factories have shut shop in three-five years. We are the last big company."

After coming to power in 2016, the Left Democratic Front government has been charting a way out to revive the state’s cashew industry. The latest and the biggest move by the state government was a revival package announced in the 2019 budget. It proposed one-year interest-free loans for private factories, and schemes to restructure their existing default loans with banks.

Many private factories could not open shops as they had already defaulted on loans and could not borrow more. At least 173 such entities were declared as non-performing assets and are facing recovery procedures, according to the minister’s office.

The revival package has an additional outlay of ₹30 crore for the state-owned cashew board and a guarantee of another ₹250 crore as loans from cooperative banks.

Kerala, like other cashew-growing states in India, is also facing a major threat from Vietnam, which sources a large share of raw nuts from West Africa at a higher price than Indian processors, but sells the processed product at a cheaper rate.

Nidheesh M.K.

Source: Live Mint

[India]: Higher input cost to cut margins of cashew processors: CRISIL SME tracker

Sep. 16, 2019

The increase in costs is due to a hike in import duty on raw cashew kernels from 45 per cent to 70 per cent, in the Union Budget for 2019-20.

CRISIL expects a sharp increase in raw material prices to impact the profitability of small and medium enterprises (SME) in cashew processing in the current fiscal year.

The increase in costs is due to a hike in import duty on raw cashew kernels from 45 per cent to 70 per cent, in the Union Budget for 2019-20.

The government raised the import duty to provide relief to domestic cashew growers who were impacted, as kernel prices quoted 10 per cent lower year-on-year in fiscal 2019, amid a supply glut stemming from a 29 per cent increase in imports.

About 50-55 per cent of the industry’s raw material demand is met through imports. The share of imports is likely to remain at a similar level in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, despite government support. This is because domestic acreage and production are likely to grow slowly as cashew trees have a high gestation period.

Given this, import of cashew kernel at higher prices will lead to higher raw material cost and low margins for processors.

Moreover, SME players will not be able to completely pass on the increase in raw material cost, as cashew demand is expected to decline by 2 per cent.

Exports, which account for about 25 per cent of processed cashew demand, are likely to drop 15-18 per cent year-on-year, as the increase in retail prices will lead to a shift of buyers from India to Vietnam.

Domestic demand, on the other hand, is likely to log moderate growth of 3-4 per cent, driven by higher industrial (wines, cookies, jams) and direct consumption.

A majority of the SME clusters in cashew processing units in India are located in the southern states — especially Goa and Kerala — due to regional concentration of domestically produced cashew. Kerala has a higher exposure to exports and is expected to be impacted more severely in fiscal year 2020, compared with Goa, which caters mostly to domestic demand.

Reporters

Source: Business Standards

[India]: ‘Palasa 1978’ doesn’t advocate violence, says actor Rakshit Atluri

Sep. 16, 2019

The Vijayawada-born actor sports four looks in the film, as his character moves from an 18-year-old to a man touching 60.

Rakshit Atluri from Vijayawada might have had a disappointing start with his début film London Babulu, which released two years ago. The film was a remake of the Tamil film Andavan Kattalai and also starred Swathi Reddy in the lead.

Now, Rakshit is confident and looking forward to the release of director Karuna Kumar’s Palasa 1978, where he’ll be sharing screen space with Nakshatra. Talking about how he landed this film, he says, “I wanted to do something different from the regular format and around that time, I met director Karuna Kumar who made short films that fetched him national awards. He narrated the story to my father and director Tammareddy Bharadwaja who is a family friend. The latter is now presenting the film.”

The film moves from 1978 to 2018 and Rakshit’s character evolves from the age of 18 to 60; the actor is seen sporting four different looks, justifying his age. An incident took place in Palasa and the director, drawing from the observations of people in the region, has fictionalised a character for this film. The director hails from Palasa and that helped him add value to the story.

The tale is set against the cashew business, which is the main income of the people. The crime drama revolves around money and politics. Rakshit elaborates, “I play Mohan Rao and the character is seen participating in dance troupes as he belongs to a family of folk artistes. Srikakulam is famous for Janapadalu. How circumstances lead him to becoming a rowdy forms the crux of the story.” He stresses that the film will be entertaining, with dances, fights and all the elements that will appeal to the mainstream audience.

Rakshit shares that he will first be seen as an 18-year-old, then 24, 40 and finally a 60-year-old in the film. The director shot the portions that required Rakshit to play a 60-year-old towards the end, as the actor had lost weight to look like a teen.

He also learnt to speak Telugu in a dialect that fit the Palasa region in 45 days, with the help of an assistant director from the area. He talks of the ordeal the team went through at the Odisha border: “There were no great facilities. For the first 10 days, we shot at night and wound up by morning. We went to Palasa during the wedding season and stayed in different places as the hotels were occupied. What I observed is the population survives on the cashew business; though there are de-seeding machines, at least 40% of the people do the task manually. All this has been captured well in the film, since we shot at live locations.” He adds that the film doesn’t advocate violence. “Mine is an intense character and I was always in the mood. There is violence but it hasn’t been depicted as though we advocate it.”

Rakshit says he is satisfied at having done a good job. “Palasa 1978 has a realistic feel to it, like some of the films we get to see in Tamil and Malayalam,” he says. Currently, the post production is on and the film is due for release in October. Raghu Kunche plays the villain and S P Balasubrahmanyam and Baby recorded a retro melody.

Y Sunita Chowdhary

Source: The Hindu

[USA]: Weak cashew and desiccated coconut sales push down US nut imports

Sep. 17, 2019

Fall in raisin purchases.


Cashews and desiccated coconut led to a fall in US purchases of edible nuts, which fell by 2% in volume to 342.8 million pounds and by 14% in value to USD1.2 billion between January and July 2019 compared with the same period in the previous year.

SHELLED CASHEWS TOTALLED 182.6 MLN LBS WORTH USD661.1 MLN BETWEEN JANUARY AND JULY 2019.

Reporters

Source: IEG Vu