Continued economic recession in the US and European countries has cast a shadow on cashew kernel exports from India. For the first month of the current financial year, India’s cashew kernels exports have shown a decline of 7.3 per cent to 7,802 tonnes compared to the same month a year ago.
In value terms, the exports have dropped by 6.1 per cent to Rs 209.74 crore as against the year ago period. The exporters have realized Rs 268.83 a kg of kernels during April 2010, a marginal rise of 1.3 per cent over April 2009. US, which is the major importer from India, bought 2,485 tonnes of kernels in April this year compared to 2,640 tonnes, showing a decline of 6 per cent over the same month last year.
“There is nothing on the horizon to change view on kernel market prospects for coming weeks and months. The pattern of periodic activity will keep the market swinging in a range. Lower processing and shipments in April/May might lead to supply tightness in the US and the Europe for some time – hopefully this should ease in third quarter (unless the delays turn into defaults),” said Pankaj N Sampath of Mumbai-based Samsons Trading.
According to the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI), the main reason for the decline was competition from other producing countries – Vietnam and Brazil. While, Vietnam claims to have gained upper hand over India in kernel exports over the last couple of years, Brazil, which is the second largest producer of raw cashew, also became a competitor mainly in the US and CIS markets, sources said.
Cashew should be included in the priority sector along with leather, handlooms, handcrafts, for support from the government, CEPCI sources added. As regards to imports of raw cashew nut during the month of April, Indian processing units imported 21,907 tonnes as against 39,992 tonnes in the same month last year, showing a decline of 45.2 per cent year on year. About 1,600 cashew nut processing units in the country import about 50 per cent of their requirements to meet their export commitments.
In value terms, the importers paid Rs 92.91 crore, a drop of 39.7 per cent over the corresponding month of last year. The net unit value of imported rawnut was Rs 42.41 a kg compared to Rs 38.58 a kg in the year ago period, a rise of almost 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the industry has pegged the domestic raw cashew nut output for the current season at 630,000 tonnes, a fall of 8-10 per cent compared to last year. The decline in output is mainly due to unseasonable rains and above normal morning temperatures prevalent during the flowering period in October and November 2009.