Despite poor product promotion, the domestic market of cashew nuts has seen a robust growth across the board in the recent past. The market has been growing at an annual average growth rate of 15% in the last decade, according to industry sources here. The total volume of cashew nuts sold in the market has been estimated at around 1.3 lakh tones in the current year. The industry sources point out that this is the estimated sales in the organised sector. Despite the positive growth rate there has not been any major increase in prices in the last couple of years with the medium quality cashew nuts being sold at around Rs 280 to Rs 350 per kg. The national capital region, Delhi is the largest consumer of cashew nuts in the country. The other major consumers of cashew nuts are Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Interestingly, the domestic market for cashew nuts has been growing without any promotion from the processing companies. Industry sources point out that it is the cashew traders who ensure smooth supplies after procuring the product from the cashew processing companies after making advance payments. In the organised sector there are also big buyers whose demand is in bulk quantity. Amul in the co-operative sector, Cadburys, Britannia, Haldiram, etc from the corporate sector are some of the big buyers. Apart from this, some of the temples like Thirupathi are also big buyers of cashew, industry spokesmen said.A large portion of the cashew nut is sold in the unorganised sector in the country. In the unorganised sector the cashew is processed by the households or by the very small processors. A proper estimate of the sales by this sector has not been made. The shortage of raw cashew in the country is prompting the industry to make huge imports of the raw materials. With such a short supply in raw materials it is the domestic market that suffers in the long run.
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