Pravin Shirke, who has 250 trees in Golawshi village, says, “I produce around 500 kg of cashew and three tonnes of the fruit. I cannot pay that price if I have to arrange for transport,” he says.įarmers, however, are of the view that the price is insufficient. “I paid Rs 5 per kg last season, but I was procuring at the factory gate. Shrikant Vaidya, another Ratnagiri-based businessman whose firm Deepali Products produces around 1,000 litres of cashew apple syrup every year, agrees. With transport, it comes to Rs 5 or more. “A lot of fruit gets rejected after being procured, so the actual price goes up to Rs 3.50. Baheti says considering his company procures fruit right from the doorstep of the farmers and provides crates for packing, the price is sufficient. While processing firms say cultivators should accept a low price because the fruit is going waste anyway, farmers say things are not that simple.ĭuring the last cashew season, Exotic Fruits paid farmers Rs 2-Rs 2.50 per kg of fruit. However, there is a disagreement between manufacturing units and farmers over the price. Though PepsiCo is the first big company to start procuring cashew apple from the region, there are small factories that have been buying the fruit. But the Maharashtra government’s ban on making cashew feni closed that option decades ago. This is perhaps the reason why traditionally cashew apples have been used for making feni-a form of country liquor the Konkan coast of Maharashtra and Goa are famous for. “To get good quality juice, the fruit must be plucked, transported and processed within 24 hours,” says Purushottam Baheti, senior manager, operations, at Exotic Fruits, a Ratnagiri-based firm carrying out processing operations for PepsiCo. Plucking the ripe fruit is difficult because it bruises easily, accelerating fermentation and making it unsuitable for juicing. Unlike fruits like mango, cashew apple cannot be plucked before it matures because the nut, which is the main produce, is not ready till the fruit becomes fully ripe. The perishability of the fruit makes it a difficult crop to process. But what does not get noticed is the fact that cashew apple, whose annual production from the state is around 1.2 million tonnes, is not contributing to farmers’ income.
We will have to get the fruit plucked and sorted, which may raise our costs,” says Vrushali.Īccording to the Directorate of Cashewnut and Cocoa Development, Maharashtra, the largest cashew-growing state, produces 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of cashew nuts every year. “The company will only accept fresh fruits without any bruises. While the couple is glad for the offer which could add about Rs 15,000 to their annual income, they are concerned it will increase labour costs. According to media reports, V D Sarma, vice president for global procurement at PepsiCo India, said that the company always tries to use locally produced fruits to reduce costs for itself as well as consumers.
The company plans to use cashew apple in place of more expensive fruits such as pineapple and pomegranate to prepare mixed fruit juice sold in India under the Tropicana label. Food processing giant PepsiCo has offered to buy their cashew apples.
“We allow the ripe fruit to fall and then pluck the cashew nut in a day or two,” says Vrushali.īut next year, they can expect a busier harvest time. FARMERS SANJAY and Vrushali Pundit of Kondiye village in Ratnagiri district had never bothered to pluck cashew apples from their 1,000 cashew trees.
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