PRESENT STATUS OF CASHEW NUT PROCESSING MACHINES

Cashew is highly appreciated in a large number of countries and cultures. The cashew nut world production in 2000 was estimated at 2 million tones of nuts ? in-shell, with an overall estimated value exceeding 2 billion USD. India is the largest cashew processor in the world. Export of cashew nut shell liquid from India stood at 11,677 million tonnes (MT), valued at US$ 9 million in 2015-16, while exports of cashew kernels stood at 96,346 MT, valued at US$ 756 million. Export earnings from cashew and allied products during FY 2015-16 stood at US$ 765 million. India accounts for about 65 per cent of global cashew exports. India exports cashew kernels to over 60 countries. Its major markets are the US, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, France, Germany, the UK as well as Middle East countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The US is the largest market for Indian cashew kernels, followed by the UAE and the Netherlands, while Indian Cashew nut shell liquid is largely exported to South Korea, followed by China and the US. The cashew industry ranks third in the world production of edible nuts. The major exporters of cashew in the world are India and Brazil with 60% and 31% respectively of the world market share. The major cashew nut importers are the United States (55%), the Netherlands (10%), Germany (17%), Japan (5%) and the UK (5%). Cashew kernels are ranked as either the second or third most expensive nut traded in the US. Also process of cashew nut is very much important as to improve production rate. Now days there are various machineries used to save the time and to improve the quality. The Industries are using manual, Semi-Automatic and fully automatic machineries to increase the production rate. But In conventional process, it takes more time to complete operation and hence production rate is very low. Thus to reduce human injuries in conventional methods and to increase the production of cashew nut the present study has been studied