PANJIM: The two-day Cashew Festival starting from Saturday, will debate about the innovative use of cashew as well as how well this resource can be tapped fully in the wake of recent forest fires ravaging cashew plantations, impact of climate change on cashew nut yield in the State and issues related to the excessive import of cashews from Africa.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will inaugurate the two-day Cashew Festival at 6 pm at the Dayanand Bandodkar ground, Campal-Panjim in the presence of Union Minister of State for Shipping Shripad Naik, Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, EDC Chairman Sadanand Shet Tanavade and other dignitaries.
Feni promoters and restaurateurs in the State however have fully seized the opportunity provided by the Goa Forest Development Corporation Limited’s (GFDC) Cashew Fest Goa 2023 to delve into the significance of the humble cashew to the State’s economy and its identity.
“The Cashew Festival is a great initiative by the GFDC to promote the cashew fruit, which is an integral part of Goan heritage. It’s an extremely versatile fruit whose reputation and taste has crossed international borders,” says Cedric Vaz, partner, Madame Rosa Distillery.
According to Prahlad Sukhtankar, Goa Chapter Head of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the issue is that 70 per cent of the fruit is currently getting wasted because the fruit is not being utilised in creative ways and there is not enough demand. Therefore farmers are not getting money to collect the fruit.
Sukhtankar also singled out a research initiative by the BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa which wants to partner with the State government to study how the discarded cashew fruit can be tapped for generating energy and in bakery or agriculture verticals. Innovative entrepreneurs Hansel Vaz, founder of Cazulo Premium Feni in collaboration with ‘Ice Cream Man’, has been working on an ice cream made out of cashew niro. “For us, niro ice cream is just the tip of the iceberg.”
