Illegal cashew kernel imports have closed down 50% plants

New Delhi: The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India Tuesday urged the government to curb illegal import of cashew kernels that has led to closure of over 50 per cent of domestic factories resulting in a loss of about six lakh jobs.

The industry body has urged the government to blacklist fraudulent importers and invoke the COFEPOSA (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) against repeated offenders.

The import of cashew kernels to India should be subject to 100 per cent inspection by the customs for sampling and testing, it demanded.

The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) has made a representation in this regard to the commerce ministry as well as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. CEPCI Chairman R K Bhoodes said a large volume of 'plain cashew kernels' (mostly broken) is being imported from competing countries, such as Vietnam, Mozambique and Ivory Coast, by misusing the duty exemption under various free-trade agreements (FTAs).

These countries have recently started processing the products that are inferior in quality compared to Indian products. Also, these countries do not have a domestic market to sell their broken cashew kernels and are disposing of at a throw away price, he claimed.

Bhoodes further said, "Some of the Indian processors have opened their processing units in these countries. They also push these low-quality kernels into the Indian market in these fraudulent ways."

Currently, the import duty on plain cashew kernel is 45 per cent. The same custom duty is levied on 'cashew kernel' but with a minimum import price of Rs 288 per kg for broken grades and Rs 400 per kg for whole cashew, he added. According to the industry body, the cashew industry is spread over 17 states of India that earns foreign exchange worth Rs 6,000 crore to the country.