Govt. plans to revive cashew sector

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has initiated moves to ensure uninterrupted supply of quality cashew for processing factories in the State, under plans to revive the flagging sector, Minister for Cashew J. Mercikutty Amma has said.An official delegation comprising officials from the department, Capex, and Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation is visiting Tanzania for the purpose, the Minister said in a pressnote issued here on Tuesday on the eve of the National Cashew Day celebrations. She said the effort would focus on providing raw material for the factories at fair price and without middlemen.

The pressnote said the Chief Minister had initiated talks with private factories to reopen the units that had downed shutters due to financial problems. Efforts were on to declare a moratorium on loans and restructure loans or provide fresh credit facilities. An empowered committee comprising bankers and government officials was already on the job.Simultaneously, the government had launched a programme to procure cashew from farms of the departments of Agriculture and Forest as well as domestic farmers.Moves were on to achieve self-sufficiency in cashew production by bringing more land under cultivation and leasing land in neighbouring States.Pointing out that rapacious middlemen and other vested interests had put the very survival of the sector at stake, she called for a coordinated effort to promote cashew cultivation, increase procurement of nuts and encourage value addition.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com