India cashew exports for the current financial year are likely to achieve a revenue increase of 25% over the previous year’s performance, thanks to a deprecating rupee and higher unit value realisation. Interestingly, this performance is likely to be achieved on a lesser volume of exports. Export revenue for the first eleven months of the current financial year already exceeds the performance of the previous financial year by 19%.
According to export figures provided by the cashew export promotion council for the first eleven months of the financial year 2008-09, India exported 99,348 tonne of cashew kernels valued at Rs 2,719.79 crore as against 1,03,139 tonne valued at Rs 2,033.88 crore during April-February 2007-08. The performance of the current financial year is 33% higher by value and 3.6% lower by volume, when compared with the same period of last financial year. In dollar terms, the exports performance is seen higher by 18%.
During 2007-08, India exported 1,14,340 tonne of cashew valued at Rs 2,288.90 crore as against 1,18,540 tonne valued at Rs 2,456.15 crore in 2006-07. As against 2007-08, Indian exports started the current financial year on a bright note. Export defaults by Vietnamese exporters saw attention shifting back to India. At the same period price of cashew was soaring high on a reported shortage. Indian exporters’ signed contracts above $7 per kg of cashew. The euphoria was short-lived as the global meltdown began to affect export volumes. Big volume buyers were seen cutting short volumes and surviving on the bare-minimum inventory. Cashew being a premium commodity has been the worst hit in the global recession.