PANAJI
Highlighting an impact on their business, cashew nut farmers have claimed that State’s largest purchaser, Goa Bagayatdar has been selective this year and is accepting only large size nuts.
With the cashew season coming to a close, the farmers are able to only sell their produce in small quantities.
Currently, the cashew nut rate is quoted Rs 123 per kilo, but the cashew processing factories are purchasing the nuts at prices even lower than this, attributing this low rate to the bumper crop this year. Also, many of the cashew nut processors have stopped buying cashews for the season.
Last year there was unseasonal rain which spoilt the crop, but this year there was no such thing. Only the heat has turned the colour of the nut reddish, and such nuts are being rejected.
“As the factories have stopped buying nuts now, we have to take them to Goa Bagayatdar but out of 10 kg, two to three kg nuts are rejected because of their size or colour, and hence we are running into losses,” claimed Rama Sawant, a farmer in Paryem-Sattari.
Goa Bagayatdar is offering good price to the cashew producing farmers said, former president of Goa Bagayatdar Narendra Sawaikar, adding, “However if the nuts we purchase are not accepted by the cashew processing factories, then we would run into losses, and that is the reason why we have been selective about the nut size. We keep buying till the cashew season gets over, and do not send the farmers back without purchasing. This issue needs to be resolved.”
