July 08, 2019
With cashew nuts going into making various cuisines and sweets, there’s a steady demand for broken cashew, which is cheaper than whole nuts.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre’s decision to increase the import
duty of cashew kernels from 45 per cent to 70 per cent comes as a relief as
cheap imports have been posing a major threat to the domestic cashew processing
industry. The hike is applicable to cashew kernels (both whole and broken
varieties) and semi-finished cashew and other products.
“There has been a surge in imports of plain and also semi-finished
kernels by making use of loopholes and false declarations in existing
laws,” said Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) chairperson R K
Bhoodes.
According to CEPCI, there are around 20
different illegal ways of bringing cashew into the country and such imports
have increased by at least 325 per cent this year.
N K Premachandran, the MP from Kollam, which is the largest exporter of
processed cashew, said duty hike would address the fall in price of cashew in
domestic market and would help revive the industry facing a crisis. He,
however, said the government’s decision to retain import duty (2.5 per cent) on
raw cashew nuts and lack of restriction on roasted cashew imports were
unfortunate. The ASEAN trade deal allowing zero import duty for roasted/salted
cashew has led to false declarations. CEPCI estimates that ports in the country
get around 25 to 30 consignments of broken cashew in a month. India continues
to be the largest market for cashew with an annual consumption of three lakh
tonnes.
With cashew nuts going into making various cuisines and sweets, there’s a
steady demand for broken cashew, which is cheaper than whole nuts.
By Unnikrishnan S
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