The All-India Cashew Growers’ Association (AICGA) has urged the Centre to fix the minimum support price of raw cashew nuts at ₹150 a kg.

Deviprasad K, secretary of AICGA, told BusinessLine that the association has already made an appeal to the government in this regard.

Stating that the current price of raw cashew nuts is around ₹100 a kg in the domestic market, he said the current cost of cultivation itself is more than ₹90 a kg. The maintenance cost of most of the hybrid varieties is high. The cost of pesticides, pruning, labour cost etc contribute a significant share to the maintenance cost of hybrid varieties.

Apart from this, the current domestic procurement price of raw cashew nuts is not remunerative when compared with other commercial crops. Giving the example of arecanut crop in coastal parts of Karnataka, Deviprasad said many farmers prefer the cultivation of arecanut to cashew.

At present, farmers earn around ₹300 a kg from arecanut crop, while they get only around ₹100 a kg from cashew. This is one of the factors affecting the area expansion of cashew crop in the country, he said.

A minimum support price of ₹150 a kg for raw cashewnuts may help encourage some more farmers to take up cashew cultivation. The support price can also make cashew cultivation attrctive to farmers, he added.

Stressing the need for the cultivation of hybrid varieties of cashew, he said industries also prefer such varieties. Hybrid varieties ensure quality cashew to the industry and better prices for farmers.

Deviprasad said the association has also asked the government to increase the import duty on raw cashew nuts from 2.5 per cent to 8 per cent.

One of the other demands of the association is to ban the import of cashew kernels from Vietnam and other countries. Such a move will benefit the domestic industries also, he added.

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