<p>Association seeks Prime Minister’s intervention to protect industry : Cashew processors under the banner of Cashew Manufacturers and Exporters Association have appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to protect the cashew industry from the “onslaught of fraudulent kernel imports”.</p> <p>In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister during his visit to Kochi recently, association general secretary A. Abdul Salaam said the large amount of kernel imports from countries such as Brazil and Vietnam under the guise of cattle and poultry feed had put the industry in crisis. The memorandum said cashew processing was a traditional industry that provided livelihood to more than 1 million people, the majority of them women from rural areas and weaker sections in society.</p> <p>The industry was also a major foreign exchange earner and the earnings during the last fiscal touched `.4,300 crore. It said India was the biggest cashew processor in the world.</p> <p>Processing in India had competitive advantages over other countries in view of the strong domestic market for broken grade kernels. Other processing countries had no domestic market for broken grades and this grade cannot be exported.</p> <p>The Indian domestic market for broken grades was being exploited through import. The other competing countries were dumping their broken grade cashew into the domestic market. The development had made countries that were traditional suppliers of raw nuts to the cashew processing industry here start their own processing units.</p> <p>This, in turn, had led to India facing tough competition in the international cashew kernel markets due to the fact that the former suppliers of raw nuts had the advantage of getting the raw material at very low prices. In this background the association has suggested imposition of duty of `. 250 a kg (as done in the case of almonds) on cashew imports. Benefits extended to re-export of kernels imported should be dropped.</p> <p>The petition also mentioned that the situation had been brought to the attention of the Union Ministry of Commerce through representations from the State’s Chief Minister, Industries Minister, Members of Parliament and trade unions.</p>