The All India Cashew Association has urged the Union Commerce Ministry to immediately intervene and take steps to protect the domestic cashew processing sector, in the wake of surge in illegal import of cashew kernels.
In a letter addressed to Rakesh Agrawal, Secretary of the Union Commerce Ministry, M. Ramakrishnan, secretary of the association, said that the cashew industry was under immense stress due to abnormally high cashew prices, while domestic demands for kernels remains sluggish. This has made cashew processing economically unviable for a large number of units across the country.
“A major factor behind the weak domestic market is the large-scale illegal import of cashew kernels into India. These imports are being routed through misdeclaration of HSN codes, declaring cashew kernels as animal feed, cashew husk, or other unrelated products. A new method has recently emerged where plain cashew kernels are falsely declared as “roasted cashews,” he said.
The domestic market is now being flooded with cashew kernels from Vietnam and African countries and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) are also being misused to channel such imports, he said.
Misleading sales
According to Mr. Ramakrishnan, these imports deceive consumers by being sold as Indian kernels, raising food safety concerns and damaging the reputation of domestic products. These kernels are not only cheaper in prices but are also inferior in quality when compared to Indian cashew kernels.
They are also being sold to consumers as Indian cashew kernels, misleading buyers and causing damage to the reputation and credibility of Indian cashew kernels in the domestic market. Continued unchecked, the situation risks large-scale shutdown of factories in the labour-intensive agro-sector threatening the livelihood of over 10 lakh women workers across the country, he said.
The association has urged the Ministry to ensure strict verification of HSN code, enhance custom verification at ports and prevent misuse of SEZs. Steps should be taken to protect consumers from mislabelled and substandard products by ensuring fair trade practices to safeguard domestic processors.