Kollam: State seeks sops for cashew sector

KOLLAM: The State Government has filed a petition before the Union Commerce Minister  Piyush Goyal demanding to revoke the import duty on raw cashew kernels completely and to increase export incentives of processed cashew. The Central Government should come forward to revive the cashew industry and find a solution to the issues faced by the industry in the State, demanded Cashew Minister J. Mercykutty Amma.

"The import duty should be completely exempted for the processers to procure raw cashew kernels for a fair price. The import duty has been recently brought down to 2.5 per cent from an earlier 5 per cent. However the Government should take initiatives to revoke the duty completely," the minister added in a press note.

In addition to this, the minister also demanded to hike the export incentive to compensate the price margin of import. The incentive is currently fixed at 2 per cent which should be hiked to at least 5 per cent to support the industry, she added.

Mavelikkara MP Kodikkunnil Suresh on Thursday raised the issue faced by cashew sector in the Lok Sabha. He demanded the Central Government to announce a package worth Rs. 1,000 crore to revive the cashew industry in the State. Mr. Suresh also pointed out that the employees are even denied EPF benefits due to the crisis in the industry. Kollam MP N.K. Premachandran also pointed out the crisis faced by the industry in the Lok Sabha.

The Central Government had recently hiked the minimum import price that would prevent flooding of kernels in the local market which in turn supports the price of indigenous processed product. The minimum import price of broken kernels has been set at Rs. 680 from an earlier Rs. 288 while that of whole kernels, Rs. 720 from Rs. 400.