Imported cashew devouring domestic market

Large quantities of under-invoiced cashew imports from countries like Vietnam and Brazil are finding their way to domestic market evading import duty and posing a threat to the domestic processors.

The under-valued cashew kernel stocks  reached the domestic market during the previous financial year primarily through ports of Nhava-Sheva, Mumbai and Chennai, the statistics on imports available from Director General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS) shows.

The average price of cashew kernels imported during the previous financial year (till February, 2012) stood at `125.32 per kg at Nhava-Sheva, `154.83 at Mumbai and `69.08 at Chennai.

“The prices are much lower than the actual value, which range between `200 and `500 per kg depending upon the quality and grades,” says Cashew Export Promotion Council of India Executive Director K Sasi Varma. With 817.64 metric tonnes of cashew valued at a meagre `10.24 crore imported during the previous financial year, the Nhava-Sheva port is the most notorious for under-invoiced imports.

 About 17 metric tonnes was  imported at Mumbai and 16 metric tonnes at Chennai. “It has come to our notice that rampant under-invoiced imports of cashew kernels, especially the broken and pieces, into the country are taking place. This leads to considerable revenue loss by way of import duty to the government. “Apart from that, domestic cashew processors are adversely affected as they are not able to fall back on the domestic market when the export market is weak,” Sasi Varma said.

“Though Director -General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce, sends out periodical alerts on commodity values to customs officials at all ports, imports continue to be accepted at set low prices. In addition to this, it is learnt that considerable quantities of mis-declared cashew kernels are being imported into India under the guise of cattle feed/ poultry feed etc. causing further loss to the exchequer,” Sasi Varma said. 

India’s major competitors like Vietnam and Brazil are creeping into our domestic market with these low-grade cashew kernels. If government machinery fails to check such unhealthy practices, it will ruin the domestic cashew industry, which has been facing stiff competition on the global front.