PONDA: The shrinking size of cashew nuts for the last few years in the State has hampered the revenue of the small scale producers. Farmers from Ponda and Dharbandora have expressed helplessness over the situation as they rely on cashew produce as it is the only source of their income.
The farmers have said that earlier, around 160 cashew nuts would make up to 1 kg however the diminishing size has increased the same number to 250. The rising preference for grafted cashew trees in the State imported from Maharashtra has also been cited as one of the reasons behind decrease in demand for Goan cashew nuts.
Some of the renowned wholesale organisations have stopped buying small sized nuts as it has become difficult to process them in factory machines. Local farmers have also claimed that factory owners are importing cashew nuts from South Africa and after processing them in factories, they rebrand and sell them as Goan.
