Cashew body to lead trade team to Vietnam

The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI), under aegis the Union commerce ministry, has finalised a delegation to Vietnam for a four-day trade meet starting there on January 22.

The visit would be part of the implementation of its Vision 2020 programme, Chairman Walter D'Souza said at the global buyer-seller meet held at Trivandrum in September last year.

The first step in this direction, the delegation to Vietnam, which will comprise 25 exporters from six states of the country, will be led by D'Souza. The Vietnam delegation will be headed by Pham Van Bien, president of the Vietnam Cashew Association.

D'Souza said, "From 1950 to 1990, Brazil had been at the second place. Vietnam has taken that place and has emerged the fastest-growing producer, processor and exporter of cashews. Against this backdrop, this delegation assumes a lot of importance from the Indian point of view."

Of the world's total cashew nut output of about 16.5 lakh tonne, the country produces nearly two-thirds at 10 lakh tonne, followed by the Vietnam and Brazil combine at about 3.75 lakh tonne and 2.75 lakh tonne respectively.

At several highest-level meetings to be held at Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) city of Vietnam, issues such as multilateral co-operation, joint promotion, marketing, research & development, clinical research on the beneficial and health-related aspects would be addressed by representatives of both the countries, D'Souza said.

The delegation will also visit the cashew plantations and processing units and exchange ideas for mutual benefits. It is expected that a MoU will be entered into on this occasion.

CEPCI's vision document has set before itself targets in respect of raw cashew nuts production, processing, technological upgrade, adoption of good manufacturing practices on par with the best in the world, promotion and marketing and, more importantly, starting of multilateral initiatives to "foster co-operative and collective efforts to promote consumption of cashews for healthy development of the world cashew economy".

It may be recalled that there was a request from major cashew importing countries to form a global cashew association. D'Souza, in his address at the recently concluded International Tree Nut convention in Montreal, Canada, consented to take the proposal forward with the CEPCI leadership.

Giridhar Prabhu, convenor, Vision 2020 committee, CEPCI, said, "Working with our closest competitor - Vietnam - will help generate ideas and resources to make this happen. There have been several attempts in the past to forge an international cashew association by all producers. The time probably has now come to go into details of the expansion of consumption on the grounds of health and nutrition by the means of generic promotion."

This would help stabilise the world cashew production and prices and lead the way to further growth, he added.

It is also possible that the International Nut Council based in Spain be identified as an immediate agency for promoting cashew kernels worldwide, Prabhu said.

The commerce ministry has extended all help and guidance to the delegation and it is expected that a representative of the ministry will be on the delegation.

Based on the consensus to be arrived at Vietnam, CEPCI proposes to have a meeting with Brazil and explore the formation of the much needed global initiative for cashews, D'Souza said.