In a bid to revive declining cashew exports, the government has announced a series of measures, including a subsidy for the modernisation of processing machinery and support for branding and marketing the product abroad. “Cashew is one of our flagship products and we will focus on developing infrastructure in the sector. We are giving utmost importance to cashew exports,” said Abhishek Dev, chairman of Agricultural Processed Food and Products Development Authority (APEDA).
Speaking at the cashew convention organised by the All India Cashew Association in Bengaluru on Thursday, Dev said financial assistance would be provided to exporters to modernise their machinery. “There is an urgent need to modernise the machinery and through our financial assistance scheme, we hope that the industry will utilise the funds to some extent to modernise,” Dev said. A 40 per cent subsidy on the cost of machinery, amounting to Rs 2 crore, will be provided to cashew exporters, said Tarun Bajaj, director (BEDF), APEDA. “This will definitely bring more efficiency, improve their competitiveness and quality and help the industry achieve economies of scale,” Bajaj said.
The Indian cashew sector, which faces challenges such as lack of modernization and rising labor costs among others, has seen its exports decline sharply in recent years.
Dev said India’s cashew exports have come down from around $917 million in 2017-18 to around $368 million in 2023-24. “Earlier, we used to export around 80 per cent of the world’s exports. Today, we export only 8 per cent. We have fallen way behind in exports,” he said. The APEDA chairman also urged the Cashew Development Directorate to work towards improving production. “We are meeting only 50 per cent of the cashew requirement through domestic production. There is a lot to be done to improve production,” Dev said, adding that APEDA is also considering a cluster approach for developing the sector. Two locations – one in Kollem, Kerala and the other in Chandgad, Maharashtra – have been identified to promote integrated development of the cluster approach.
APEDA will also help the industry promote cashew exports, which it considers as one of the 25 flagship products. “We plan to market cashew as a global product of India. We will come up with a branding campaign,” Dev said. “We will take up the issue with FSSAI and other research units on how to popularise the health benefits of cashew abroad,” he added. Bola Rahul Kamath, president of All India Cashew Association, said the measures announced by the APEDA chairman on Thursday would help attract investments in the sector.
Kamath said India’s share in the global cashew trade has declined from about 80 per cent to less than 10 per cent as the industry faces challenges like rising labour costs, lack of mechanisation and slower growth in domestic production. India’s cashew production has increased from 4 lakh tonnes to 7 lakh tonnes in the last 25 years, during which imports have increased from 4 lakh tonnes to 13 lakh tonnes. Global production during this period has increased from 10 lakh tonnes to 50 lakh tonnes, he said.