| Date: |
24-11-2015 |
| Subject: |
Diamond City fast emerging as cashew processing hub |
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SURAT: After diamonds and textiles, its now cashews nuts. Surat is fast emerging as a processing hub of raw cashew nuts imported mostly from the African countries like Tanzania and Kenya.
Over 200 big and small cashew nuts processing units have come up in and around the city, including in parts of Amroli, Kamrej and Surat-Navsari Road in the last couple of years to meet the growing demand of cashews in the Diamond City in particular and Gujarat in general.
As per an estimate provided by industry experts, the Diamond City processes around 125 tonnes of raw cashew nuts per day - around 45,000 tonnes per year. The yield from one tonne of raw cashew is around 25%. Hence, nearly 30 tonnes of cashew nuts are produced every day in the city-around 10,000 tonnes per year which are supplied in the local market and to neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Most of the raw cashew comes from the Mundra port. Tanzanian cashew nuts are considered to be of the best quality followed by those from Benin in West Africa, Kenya and Indonesia.
Ajay Sharma, owner of a cashew nut importing firm in the city, said, "Three years ago there were only 10 to 15 cashew nut processing units in the city, now we have more than 200. The city is fast emerging as the cashew processing hub."
"We have taken the consultancy for importing more than 5,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew from Tanzania to Surat for one Neelkanth Enterprises. Auctions are held at Mtwara district in Tanzania for raw cashews. This is going to be the first direct import of raw cashews in the city. We have good port facilities at Adani Hazira port and at the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Sachin."
Sanjay Makwana, who has a processing unit near Sachin, attributed the reasons for growth in import from Tanzania to factors such as quality of cashew and direct calling of mainline container vessels to Surat.
Makwana, who processes around two tonnes of cashew every day said, "Tanzanian seeds have good colour and size. The price of Tanzania cashew and Indian cashew is almost the same in the retail market. But one can easily differentiate between Indian and Tanzanian cashew from its colour and size. This fact helps the processing industry to compete with the Indian cashews."
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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