Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Chef Minister Pramod Sawant has proposed separate branding for cashews from different state to distinguish Goan cashews from rest of the varieties.
“There should be separate branding and packaging for cashews from different states, he said. He asked Directorate of Cashewnut and Cocoa Development to advise state governments as to how to go about doing this. He also pointed out that African cashews are being sold as Goan Cashews.
He was addressing the inaugural session of the ‘National Conference on Cashew: Sustainable Cashew Production Challenges & Opportunities.”
He advised the participating cashew growing states not to waste cashew apple but prepare feni and urrak from it the way Goa does.
At the National Conference on “Sustainable Cashew Production – Challenges and Opportunities,” Sawant stated, “The process of GI tagging urrak and cashew apple with nut is in the pipeline and the process to finalize SOP for implementing GI tags is in progress.”
In India, raw cashew nut production is estimated to be 7.8 lakh metric tonne from 11.9 lakh hectares, while Goa produces only about 25,800 metric tonne from 56,934 hectares with an average productivity of 453 kg/ha.
The processing industries, which include those in Goa, require roughly 20 lakh metric tonnes. Large amounts of raw nuts are imported by these processing industries from west African nations, and the CM stated that the foreign exchange outflow on the import of 12.5 lakh metric tonnes of raw nuts is approximately Rs 11,632.6 crore.
