<p></p><p>Cashew prices continued to head north last week on buying interest with moderate business taking place mainly for wholes, while some business for brokens were also concluded.Business was done during the week for W240 from $3.80 to $3.95; W320 from $3.40 to $3.50; W450 from $3.20 to $3.30 per lb (fob) with next offers being a few cents higher. Levels for other grades were SW320 at around $3.30; SW360 at around $3.20, Splits and Butts at around $2.40, Pieces at around $2.10 per lb (fob).However, the domestic market was quiet and, of course, that is not unusual for this time of the year, Mr Pankaj N. Sampat, a Mumbai-based dealer told Business Line.From the demand side, there are no clear indications about prospects for 2012, he said. End of 2011and the first quarter of 2012 have been bad in almost all markets with varying degrees of decline. Buyers are reluctant to take on forward positions hoping that offtake will pick up in the second half of 2012 – they would rather see actual movement before buying any significant volume.</p> <p>Better availability will definitely increase offtake, as a product moves when it is on the shelves, he said. Lower prices should also induce increased usage but it is not clear how far the retail prices will decline in the second half of the year.“We continue to expect off take in 2012 to be better than the lows we saw in the last two quarters and growth will probably be decent in Asia and small in other markets,” Mr Pankaj claimed. </p><h1>RCN market tight</h1> <p>Raw Cashew Nut (RCN) market continued to be tight. Tanzania RCN, which had gone down to approximately $1,225 a ton (c&f) due to liquidation by some traders, has again moved up to about $1,300 a ton (c&f). Benin is being traded at around $1,100 a ton (c&f), whereas Ivory Coast (IVC) is in the $975-$1,025 a ton (c&f) range.For the last two weeks, there was increasing concern about the size of the crop in IVC and where yields are lower. Arrivals are slow and price is going up. The problem in Guinea Bissau – if not resolved soon – will affect movement of RCN from there. Despite reports of high prices in Vietnam, very few Vietnam processors are buying in Africa, probably due to financial constraints, he said.Until last week the general feeling was that barring small problems, outlook for 2012 supply was good, although some have been talking of a shortage in IVC since end of March and beginning of April.Shellers have been slow in buying RCN as they have not been able to sell kernels in large blocks at “comfortable” prices. Kernel buyers have been happy buying small lots for nearbys, seeing no reason to pay premium to build forward positions.</p> <p> In the last 10 days, kernel prices have gone up by 15-20 cents per lb, but are still a little lower than levels at end of 2011/beginning of 2012, significantly lower than the average of 2011 and substantially lower than the peak of mid 2011.“It is quite possible that we might see a dip from current levels during the current quarter if RCN arrivals improve and prices come down but we feel that the downside is limited,” he said.Although nobody would like the market to go anywhere near the peak, it does seem that it will move towards the average for 2011 during the third quarter of 2012.<br></p><p></p>