By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Cashew Export Promotion Council Thursday (CEPC) demanded central government intervention to check the rising rupee against the dollar.
CEPC chairman Walter D’Souza told reporters here that the rupee appreciation of 11 percent in six months has become unbearable for an industry that operates on wafer-thin margins.
“What came as a shock to us was when the central government early this month slashed the ‘duty entitlement passbook’ (DEPB) for cashew from 3 percent to 1.5 percent. This came at a time when we were asking for more,” said the chairman.
“The country’s cashew export is facing serious competition from countries like Vietnam and Brazil. Vietnam has the biggest advantage because of the strengthening of the rupee. We are meeting Commerce Minister Kamal Nath tomorrow and we are happy that the Kerala government has seen this as a serious issue,” said D’Souza.
Export figures for the first half of this fiscal show a marked decline in both quantitative and rupee terms.
Last fiscal, 58,210 tonnes of cashew were exported in the first half of the year, which fell to 57,157 tonnes for the same period this year. Exports for the same period fell from Rs.12.23 billion to Rs.10.97 billion in rupee terms.
Nearly 85 percent of those employed in the cashew industry are women.
“There are 19 jobs for every Rs.10 million of exports in other sectors, while in the cashew sector the figure is 200,” claimed D’Souza.
“We feel that if the DEPB is pegged at 8 percent, it would offset the current problems,” he added.