Direct sailing of raw cashew nut from East Africa began to the processing units in Karnataka for the current financial year with the calling of a mainline container vessel at the New Mangalore Port on Tuesday.
The vessel – m.v. Kota Nabil – belonging to Pacific International Lines (PIL) called at the New Mangalore Port with 139 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of raw cashew on Tuesday.
Mr K. Prakash Rao, one of the importers of raw cashew from East Africa, told Business Line that the vessel left the Port of Mtwara in East Africa on December 7 and reached New Mangalore on December 15.
With the calling of mainline container vessels to New Mangalore Port, the number of days in transporting the raw cashew cargo from East Africa has come down from 30 days to nine days, he said.
On the advantages of reduction in shipment time of the cargo, he said this will help meet the immediate requirement of cashew processing industry in the region. It will also help maintain the quality of raw cashew, he added.
The vessel was handled by Sea Master Shipping & Logistics Pvt Ltd of Seaways Group. Mr Praveen Kumar Bangera, Senior Manager of Seaways Group, Mangalore, said that another two or three vessels, with 12,000 tonnes of raw cashew, are expected to Mangalore within one or two months.
Since these vessels will sail to Singapore, China and East African ports, exporters and importers could make better use of these services, he added.
Source : Business Line