Kollam: The Kerala State-owned Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC) at Kollam, which has been in the red ever since its inception some four decades ago, seems to be on the path of recovery through effective cost control measures and scientific marketing strategy. The Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr K.A. Retheesh, told Business Line that his first step after taking over was to build up confidence in the 20,000 workers in its 30 factories spread over Kollam, Alapuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur and Kannur districts of the State by providing them with employment for over 200 days a year.
In 2004, the factories worked for only 14 days and the next year, 235 days of work was given to them. Thereafter, on an average, the factories worked for 185 to 200 days a year. They process around 45,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts to get over 10,000 tonnes of cashew kernel a year.
The company, which had made a loss of Rs 40 crore in 2005-06, has reduced it to Rs 10 crore in the subsequent years. During the current fiscal, the corporation is planning to run the factories for 300 days so as to achieve a working profit for the first time in its history, he said.
STC tie-up
To achieve this objective by adopting an innovative method, the KSCDC has already entered into a tie-up with the State Trading Corporation (STC) for importing the raw material and making it available to the factories “at the right price at the right time”.
With this tie-up the working capital problem, which had been a major impediment to import raw nuts at the “right time and at the price”, has been resolved, he said.
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He expressed confidence that by running the factories at full capacity for 300 days, coupled with marketing of its value-added products at a competitive price under the brand “CDC cashews” in the domestic and overseas markets, the corporation would be able to achieve a turnover of Rs 300 crore during the current fiscal as against Rs 100 to Rs 150 crore in the previous years.
Settling losses
The corporation, which is the single largest cashew processor and employer in the cashew sector in the country, has an accumulated loss of Rs 450 crore as on March 31, 2007. The Government, he said, is in the process of settling the outstanding liabilities amounting to Rs 100 crore of the KSCDC with the banks, which would in turn bring down the debt servicing cost substantially.
Considering the importance of the public sector cashew corporation as a major employment provider to 25,000 workers, mostly women, the Central Government had already made available Rs 1 crore for international market promotion through publicity.
The corporation has already developed four value-added products with the technical support of the Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore. They are being launched globally during the Dubai Shopping Festival next month.
To be competitive
To be competitive in the international market in terms of food quality, the introduction of hygienic practices is underway. With the support of the Cashew Export Promotion Council Laboratory, the cashew development corporation is working to secure ISO 22000-certification.
It is also in the process of setting up an R&D wing apart from developing a nursery for producing high yielding, disease resistant cashew planting materials using the GM method, he said.
At the same time all the factories would be modernised innovatively during the Eleventh Plan, he said. The State Government has already given Rs 4.5 crore for this purpose. The ultimate objective of the cashew development corporation is to transform it as an international cashew development agency.
Another significant factor as far as the corporation is concerned is that there had not been any strike during the past three years in its factories which has been a holding the stigma of militant trade unionism for long in the past, he added.
