India’s cashew exports in value terms touched a seven-year low at $339.21 million for the financial year 2023-24, a decline of around 4.8 per cent over the previous year’s $356.32 million.

In rupee terms, the cashew exports were ₹2,808.80 crore during 2023-24 over the previous year’s ₹2,868.86 crore, a decline of 2.09 per cent. In volume terms, the cashew kernel exports stood at 60,222 tonnes during April-Feb 2023-24, over the same period last year’s 5,5114 tonnes. The volume data for March is yet to be released.

Trade sources attribute the decline to the growing trend in value addition in the producing countries in Africa and the rising processing costs in the country and drop in prices. India imports raw cashew nuts from countries such as Ivory Coast, Benin, Ghana and Tanzania among others.

Preparedness

RK Bhoodes, Chairman of Federation of Indian Cashew Industry, said the decline in India’s cashew exports was mainly because of the African countries’ preparedness to cater to the global markets, thanks to the incentives offered by the respective governments for export promotion. The processed cashew from Africa are now finding markets in the United States, Europe and other cashew consuming countries where the consumption has gone up after Covid.

The El Nino factor has also affected the supply of raw cashew from African countries into India. This has also been a contributing factor for the decline in Indian exports volume, Bhoodes said.

Moreover, the international competitiveness for the Indian cashew is declining because of the high cost of processing in the absence of mechanisation and the country’s over-dependence of imported raw cashew nuts where its prices have no parity with cashew kernel rates, Bhoodes added.

In the April-January period of fiscal 2023-24, top destination for the Indian cashew kernels were the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Netherlands, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

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