Demand soars, government to boost cashew trade

18 November 2011

biswabrata goswami
TAMLUK, 18 NOV: To boost cashew trade, the state government is planning to implement the Cashew Nut Cluster Zone Project at Contai in East Midnapore. The government also aims to expand the project to other parts of the state.
Three years ago, the Left Front government had taken up an initiative to popularise the trade amongst farmers, but it failed to implement the project following objections from traders. The traders had alleged that many fake traders had been included in the shareholders’ list.
Crisis in the industrial sector in Vietnam and Brazil, major competitors of India in the cashew nut market, had inspired the state government to take fresh initiative for expanding the cashew nut producing area.
Officials of the state industry department said the move would enable the state to export more cashew nut from the next financial year. To meet the growing demand, the state food processing industry and horticulture department is planning to reactivate the cashew nut cluster zones comprising East and West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts.
“Due to Maoist problem in parts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, the overall trade in the sector has drastically fallen in the past three years. But, the state government is now planning to reactivate the trade as the demand is growing in the international market," said an official of the state horticulture department. "Although the demand in the traditional markets like the USA, Europe, Japan, and Australia is stagnating or showing slow growth, consumption in other Asian countries is growing fast," the official said.
According to horticulture officials, India exports cashew nut primarily to the USA, Europe, Japan and Australia. The demand for Indian cashew nut has gone up as both Vietnam and Brazil have failed to meet the global demand. This has also led to a rise in the prices.
Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are the major cashew nut producing states in the country. Though in comparison with the average cashew nut production in India, which stands at 0.65 ton per hectare, West Bengal produces one ton cashew nut per hectare.
“But with the increasing demand in the global market, there is a huge scope for the farmers to treat it as a commercial crop here. So, we have planned to spread our cashew nut producing area by 200 hectares from 1.32 lakh hectares this year through various projects under the National Horticulture Mission," said an official.
Apart from this, the horticulture department will supply high-yielding variety of cashew to the farmers. The high-yielding variety, brought from Maharashtra, will produce cashew weighing between 8 and 10 gram, which has great demand in the international market, said an official of the department.
For speedy implementation of the "Front Line Technology Demonstration in Cashew", financial assistance to the tune of Rs 30,000 per hectare will be provided for a period of three years for conventional method of cultivation. In case of organic farming, the assistance will be to the tune of Rs 40,000 per hectare.
The department will also provide Rs 30,000 per hectare for three years for inter-cropping.
According to reports, around 450 cashew nut units (small and medium) are active in the Majna area of Contai and more than 50,000 people are engaged in this sector.