THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major shot in the arm for the fledgling Kerala Cashew Board’s attempts to clinch a deal with cashew nut suppliers in Africa, the Industries Department has waived the need for an e-tender. Now the Board needs only to put out bids in the vernacular dailies of suppliers like Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau for the purpose.The latest move came after the government-to-government purchase deal and the expression of interest (EOI) invited by the Kerala Cashew Board elicited a tepid response from the African nations.
According to the government order(GO) issued by K Elangovan, Principal Secretary, Cashew Industries, the state government has given permission to the Cashew Board - which was earlier directed to go in for an e-tender or government-to government purchase or other legal means to ensure transparency in the procurement proceedings - to float short tenders in the local vernacular dailies in Ivory Cost and Guinea-Bissau, where the harvesting season has begun, to procure the nuts needed to revive the cashew sector in Kerala.
It is the LDF Government’s policy to ensure round-the-year functioning of the cashew processing factories, J Mercikutty Amma, Minister for Cashew and Fisheries, told Express. “The state is exploring all avenues to procure raw nuts to ensure the smooth functioning of the sector. Though challenges are galore, the government is hopeful of clinching a deal with the suppliers in African countries,” she said.
Sources close to the Kerala Cashew Board said the sector is ruled by middlemen. The suppliers in the African countries normally will not evince interest in taking part in the tendering proceedings of Kerala as the tender requirements are somewhat high for them to meet. Further, they have enough opportunities to sell their stocks there minus the labyrinthine formalities here. Besides, a good number of traders in India are very active in the African countries who used to procure cashew nuts from the farmers and local traders there and store them in their warehouses in Africa.
Most importantly, they know how to capitalise on the market dynamics in India and make a killing by hoarding and pushing up the market rates. So it remains to be seen whether the short tender to be floated in African countries will indeed yield any results, they say. As per the statistics available with the Directorate of Cashewnut & Cocoa Development (DCCD), the state’s cashew output was pegged at 83,980 MT in the 2016-17 financial year. This accounts for only 14 per cent of the sector’s total requirement.
The state requires around eight lakh cashew in a year to ensure round-the-year work for the nearly three lakh cashew workers, 90 per cent of whom are women.According to the Factories and Boilers Department registry, there are around 750 registered cashewnut processing factories in the state, out of which only 450 are operational. The Centre had slashed the import duty on cashewnuts from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent recently to revive the sector. However, certain clauses which make the export of at least 25 per cent of the nut imports mandatory poses problems to the players in the sector making it well-nigh impossible to meet for several stakeholders, say experts.
● Kerala Cashew Board’s attempt to purchase nuts though EOI and government-to-government purchase evinced tepid response.
●Now the government gave permission to float short tenders in local dailies in Africa.
●The DCCD stats say the domestic production was 83,980 MT cashew in 2016-17, around 14 per cent of the total requirement of the sector.
●The state requires around 8 lakh MT cashew annually to ensure round the year work for around 3 lakh employees, 90 per cent of whom are women.
●Factories and Boilers Department registry say around 750 registered cashewnut processing factories are there in the state, of which only 450 are operational now.