Abstract:
Cashew is an important commodity traded across the continents and the world cashew industry
is the livelihood of more than three million people worldwide, the majority of whom are
womenfolk from the socially and economically backward community of the developing
nations. India was the first country to hit the world market with cashew as a commodity and it
was she who pioneered cashew processing as an industry. For decades together India was
enjoying a monopoly in the world cashew industry. The liberalization of international trade has
brought in a big transition in the field of cashew. India started to benefit from the trade policy,
but with more raw nut producing countries acquiring the knowhow of processing coupled with
vast mechanization in cashew processing, India started losing her premier positions in the world
cashew scenario. The inability to make use of opportunity, foreign entrants in the domestic
market, foreign suppliers of raw nuts, reduction in the international market share, shift in the
processing, identify new market are some of the major challenges that awaits Indian cashew
Industry. This transition of world cashew industry and the challenges that await India in the
years to come in view of these continued transition were the subject matter of this research
work. The findings of the study enable the Indian cashew Industry to gear up to cater the ever
increasing demand of the domestic market as well as to contribute in a better way to the growth
of the country. Though there has been a lot of research conducted in the field of cashew, the
gap of a research in the above mentioned dimension is huge. This prompted the researcher to
conduct a study in this aspect
