India: Costly import hits cashew export revenue

KOCHI: Costly import of raw nuts is making a dent in the revenue of cashew exporters as the shipments and prices of cashew kernels dwindle. Cashew nut exports have declined 16% for the ten month period ended January 2013.

Last year has seen India export 1,31,760 tonne cashew kernels valued at record Rs 4,390 crore. But this year, the country may fall short of this figure given the sluggish buying trend in the global market, say the exporters.
"There has been a drop in purchases from the US and Europe, two main buying regions," said Anu S Pillai,partner of Anu Cashews, a major exporter. The cashew kernel exports have reached 75,798 tonne, valued at Rs 3,089 crore till January 2013.
The drop in value is around 17%. Like it happened last year, high import prices vis-a-vis low export prices are worrying the exporters. Close to 60% of the total raw nut requirement of 14 lakh tonne is imported.
Till now, the exporters have been sourcing the nuts from Tanzania, and will turn to West Africa as the season begins there. The raw nuts are available in the range of $900 to $1,000 per tonne.
"The current export price in the range of $3.30 to $3.50 a pound is not sufficient to meet the expenses on import,'' said Pillai. A price above $3.60 is needed to keep pace with the import prices. But as the production inIvory Coast and Ghana, two major producers of raw nuts, gets active, the raw nut prices may slip.
The raw nut imports in January 2013 at 71,610 tonne are almost double the quantity in the same month of the previous year. In the past few years, domestic market has turned out to be lucrative for the processor-exporters as there has been a surge in the sales. But increasing flow of under-invoiced cashew kernels from Vietnam andBrazil has been a setback for them.
"The cashew traders abroad under invoice the lots to evade 35% import duty. Such kernels are sold cheaply in the Indian market, adversely affecting the domestic traders," said P Somarajan, proprietor of Kailas Cashews.

Source: India Times