In Quilon, Cashew Processing Pens its Plight

In Quilon, Cashew Processing Pens its Plight

By Ignatius Pereira

My name is Processing..... Cashew Processing: to be precise. Though I am almost one hundred years old it is still not clear to me as to how and why I was born in Quilon (Kollam) in erstwhile Travancore kingdom and soon flourished there. I am puzzled over this because the component that was instrumental in shaping me was endemic to Brazil in the form of a flora scientifically called Anacardium occidentale.

And yet nobody in Brazil thought on the lines of creating something identical to me. But in Quilon I quickly became a socially, politically and economically important entity and eventually a powerful vote bank too providing employment to thousands of persons, the majority of them women.

In Quion I was even labelled “traditional” and then went on to become an icon of the place. In turn I baptised Quilon as the “Cashew Citadel of the World”.  I also bestowed Quilon with the privilege of having the global monopoly over me.

Processing in progress

Now, as I am turning a centenarian I thought of briefly penning my feeling of sadness because in Quilon, my motherland, a sense of despair has overwhelmed me as I am in the terminal ward battling for life and I fear it is a battle I may lose and soon become history. This condition of mine is in spite of the fact that there was a time when people thought I have an incredibly invincible lifespan in Quilon. My fear gets aggravated because Quilon is notorious for killing and burying many successful industries.

My present plight is attributed to the pathological condition of my organs called cashew factories that kept me alive and kicking through almost a century in Quilon. These organs are now under attack by the virus called “high cost of production”.

Consequently many of the organs have now stopped functioning one by one. Even at this critical stage no proper life support system to save me seems to be in place. As a result the “Cashew Citadel” celebrity status of Quilon is fast fading away.

The situation stemmed from decades of exploitation and neglect. Whereas elsewhere including Brazil where my kin was denied Visa for a long time has now started giving my tribe not only residential status Visa but even citizenship. Back in Quilon the neglect and exploitation conditions continue to provide the environmental factors for the proliferation of the virus that is killing me.

It was the Portuguese during the colonial days particularly noted Anacardium occidentale in Brazil and developed a liking for that flora as something that could contain soil erosion. From Brazil they took and planted the plant all over the tropics where they colonised. The fruits that emerged from that activity attracted the simple people of Goa. 

They experimented with those exotic fruits and the end product was called kaju and feni. That crude and disorganised Goan initiative led to the creation of my genes which many years later shaped me at Quilon. In the interim somehow the kajus that the creators of my genes crudely produced landed in the United States where it was used as a taste giver to cookies and pastries.

The cashew kernel taste was unique and looked like something the US confectionary industry had been waiting for decades.  It triggered big demand from the US to such an extent that the crude Goan system could hardly meet. Then, way back in the 1920s someone from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), a visionary I would call him, could foresee the tremendous commercial potential of cashew kernels if my genes created in Goa could be better organised and modernised. That was how I evolved.

The man from Ceylon probably chose Quilon as the base probably because Quilon at that time was a major industrial hub- a mini Bombay of sorts- of Travancore and operating an industry in such a place had many advantages. Being a food product that needs to be processed with meticulous care to get the brittle embryo or kernel in its natural kidney shape and ivory hue out from the acidic leathery shell and then from the soft tegmen with taste intact required the patience, feeling  and skill of a housewife. That was the reason women were chosen to take me forward. They too felt at home while with me.

And as I took off there was no looking back. By that time sufficient numbers of Anacardium occidentale brought by the Portuguese was thriving in the sub continent to enable enough local procurement of the quantity of raw cashew nuts required by me at Quilon to process and meet the US demand. One of the biggest buyers at that time was the New York based General Foods Corporation (GFC).

For the export market

Within a short span I even got poised to soon take over as the major industrial activity in Quilon. As demand from the US soared a representative of the GFC, Lindsay Johnson, landed in Quilon sometime in 1928 to streamline the kernel deals. He went back to New York briefly, married and returned to Quilon with his wife, Elsa. He later resigned from the GFC to start his own cashew business in Quilon.

Lindsay got so fascinated by Quilon that he decided settling there and built a bungalow. His passion for Quilon was so intense that when he had a daughter in 1936, he even christened her “Kerala”. There was no place by the name Kerala at that time and that name was purely mythical. Lindsay at that time also had an efficient manager Swaminathan. Lindsay mainly outsourced me and some of those who later emerged as cashew barons were those to whom Lindsay had outsourced me. There is no dispute over the fact that Lindsay’s arrival in Quilon was a turning point for me.

And when he thought everything seemed fine, unfortunately for Lindsay things took a sad turn when the US entered the World War-2 in 1941. That country then wanted all its citizens in India to return and Lindsay with a heavy heart entrusted his business to Swaminathan, pledged his bungalow with the erstwhile Quilon Bank and with that money left with Elsa and Kerala for New York by ship via Bombay.

While leaving Quilon Lindsay told Swaminthan that he will return to take over once the war is over. Though the war was over and Lindsay was yearning to return he was discouraged from returning by Swaminathan for reasons best known only to Swaminathan-(this was told to the author by Kerala herself when they in 2004). Then suddenly Swaminathan turned out to be the top cashew baron in Quilon and was even tagged as the one who introduced me to Quilon: “No comments from me on that”. The inability of Lindsay to return was another turning point for me.

The end of the world war brought new fortunes and stronger international market destinations to the Quilon cashew sector and I was flushed with excitement. Soon Thangal Kunju Musaliar who is reported to have worked as Swaminathan’s bullock cart driver surpassed Swaminathan in the business by sheer acumen and hard work. I also faintly remember seeing Musaliar as the bullock cart driver during Lindsay’s time too. Musaliar’s can be called a cashew processing empire. There were many others too highly successful with me. Those days were in fact was my golden age in Kollam. Later Swaminathan had an unholy exit from the cashew industry and also had a pathetic end. Could it be the Lindsay curse?  I often wondered.

Even as most of the industries that had been flourishing when I entered the Quilon scenario were by now sinking, things looked bright and positive for me and people had more reasons to conclude that I am invincible. Through me huge foreign exchange entered the country.  I was instrumental in providing luxurious lifestyle to those who owned me and sleek imported cars owned by them were a common sight in Kollam. But above all I provided thousands of women with a nice means of livelihood and played a key poverty alleviation role in Quilon.  The Central Government even created an export promotion council as a guarantee for my health.

And as demand for the kidney shaped ivory coloured kernels zoomed, the locally grown Anacardium occidentale could hardly meet the raw material demand of mine. That made my bosses source huge quantities of the raw material raw nuts from mainly Vietnam and Tanzania. The raw nuts arrived by ship at the Quilon port. Later the raw material began to be sourced from other African countries like Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Benin, Nigeria, Ghana and also Indonesia. In fact these countries exported their entire harvest of raw nuts to Quilon and that income was a major foreign exchange earner for them too.

Those were the days when kernels though produced in Quilon were a luxury commodity with people in the country hardly tasting good quality cashew. In fact there was no domestic market for top grade kernels. Only bits and splits were available and the domestic market for cashew became active only during the Deepavali festive season.

When imported raw nuts in bulk began reaching Quilon, the price of the native nuts dropped alarmingly and people who had cultivated Anacardium occidentale axed them down by the hundreds to be replaced with rubber and other cash crops. At that time everyone concerned with my sector foolishly thought that since raw nuts were available aplenty across the sea round the year there was nothing to worry. But this resulted in a situation where I had to almost completely depend upon imported raw material.  Ship loads of raw nuts then began arriving at Tuticorin and Kochi ports. This even led to a competition between the two ports to get the bigger share of the import and export shipments.  

On the other side of the fence things were not that rosy for me. As the working class movement with a left orientation began gaining momentum it entered the cashew sector too. Politicians accused my bosses with ruthless exploitation of the cashew workers and there was a kernel of truth in what they alleged. The workers worked in bad working conditions, they were badly underpaid compared to the massive profits their labour brought to the bosses and there were also allegations of sexual exploitation by sections from the managerial side. Trade unions affiliated to political parties were created and registered with different names sporting a cashew tag. Trade unions with left leanings championed the cause of the workers in the initial stages and then the Congress with its own trade union also entered.

As the trade union movement gained momentum, I brought big returns to the political parties, trade unions and bigger prospects to the some of the politicians too, especially those leading the movement. Very soon it led to even national level political leaders emerging from the Quilon cashew hub. Seeing the gains reaped by the political parties and trade unions active in my arena even other political parties having no roots or representation in Quilon also tried their luck in the cashew sector by launching their own trade unions.

But definitely, the trade union interventions brought about handsome social security rewards to the workers in the form of statutory rights and benefits. The workers for the first time realised that were being exploited in many ways and because the majority of them were women, exploitation was a cinch. The workers expressed their gratitude to the leaders by voting for the candidates of the political parties they represented in the elections and soon the political parties realised that the votes of cashew workers is the major component that ensures victory in any election at Quilon. It also dawned on them that cashew workers are in fact powerful vote bank.

And that became yet another turning point for me- a negative turning point. Trade unions competed with each other to get a lion’s share of the vote bank and that competition triggered perennial demands for workers rights which even puzzled the workers. There were some trade union leaders who played the double game of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. My bosses were also seen as easy targets whenever there was a fund collection drive launched by political parties or trade unions. Many a time it was a three tier collection for each drive. There had also been instances of personal rivalry between a trade union leader/politician and any of my bosses triggering a strike in front of the latter’s factory and keeping me shut down for months till the boss succumbs-a blackmail tactics of sorts....I then turned out to also become an easy means of comfortable livelihood for some trade union leaders too. To ensure that their means of livelihood remains secure the tool of trade union militancy began to get steadily employed into my realm.

That was still another turning point for me-for the worse. The militancy was promoted to such levels with political patronage that many of my bosses found it extremely difficult to maintain me. That paved the way for the first phase of the viral attack on my organs. It sent a message that cashew is heading towards turning into a business where one will burn their fingers. Even the factories under the onetime cashew empire of the Musaliar group remained shut. Hundreds of cashew workers lost their jobs and the vote bank faced the threat of getting liquidated. This seriously petrified the political parties and trade unions.  In 1969 the then State government intervened and came up with emergency rescue measures for me by taking over more than thirty closed factories lock, stock and barrel and floated a company called the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation (KSCDC).

Interestingly the KSCDC is headquartered at the same bungalow that Lindsay built. The new company that started business in 1971 was tipped as a model employer sans profit motive. True to that policy in its 47 year history the KSCDC has not made a single Rupee as profit and the model employer turned out to be a white elephant that had to be frequently propped up with huge public funds in order to maintain the vote bank. Corruption ruled the corporation managed by a director board stuffed with representatives of political parties who were blissfully oblivious about cashew market behaviour.

In the interim with a new and strong market for the Quilon cashew emerging in the erstwhile USSR as a stronger market than the US, the demand for kernels zoomed further. It was called the Russia market. Then new faces began entering the industry to own me and I was able to provide the majority of them with profits. Sadly the KSCDC alone was in the red even though I tried helping to whatever extent I could. But corruption in the corporation was something beyond my limits to intervene and end. Later the one time strong Russian market also turned highly weak with the disintegration of the USSR.

Meanwhile as trade union militancy grew and the virus began to proliferate in Quilon, some of my bosses set in motion migration mode for me. They took me to some places out of the reach of the trade union militancy and where it was free from the virus that was choking me at Quilon. I quickly adapted myself to those situations and continued to profitably serve my bosses as well as provide a comfortable means of livelihood to my new corps of workers. Then I migrated into many other regions too within India and everywhere I went I was successful.

Otherwise as things still looked bright for me and cashew business at Quilon, something odd began happening in the sector and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Some of the cashew sector trade union leaders too saw me as a money spinner and started owning me as benami asset. Even as these trade union leaders fought against and put an end to me being unethically used, like cottage processing (kudivaruppu as they call it), by my bosses since that system deprives the workers of their rights and benefits, the paradox is that many of the trade union leaders who started owning me resorted to the same unethical practice to mint unholy profits. And since they enjoyed the monopoly of being “authorised” to oppose me being employed to unethical practices they were pretty safe when they resorted to it.  But all said and done the cashew business was once again booming in Kollam.

And when I thought everything looked bright for me comes the shocking news that Vietnam had suddenly stopped exporting the raw cashew produced there. That country took that step to introduce me in a big way there. They automated me and started producing kernels in such huge quantities that they demolished the 90 year old Quilon or Indian monopoly over cashew exports. Vietnam began exporting in such volumes that Vietnam not only turned out to be the biggest cashew kernel exporter internationally but started exporting kernels to India and even to Quilon. The export promotion council could only stand as a mute spectator utterly helpless, and completely clueless about its purpose.

But the reason why Vietnam could do that is because through automation their cost of production was less than one-fourth of what it is in Quilon and they produced sufficiently large quantity of the raw material they needed. And now Vietnam is also a competitor for Quilon in the raw nut markets of the African countries. Moves are already afoot in the African raw nut producing countries too to start processing and if that happens I am doomed. 

Efforts years ago to get my organs in Quilon automated were vehemently opposed at the political and trade union levels.  Yet for partially mechanising some of the factories, heavy bribes had to be paid to even the trade union leaders. Added to this problem, in 2015 even as the Quilon cashew was facing strong threats from Vietnam due to the virus of high cost of production, the politicians and trade unions via the State government with a calculated eye on the vote bank unilaterally imposed a 35 per cent wage hike for cashew workers on the eve of an Assembly election.

My bosses cried foul and tried explaining that such a hike will be unbearable for them to take me forward. They pointed out the repercussions in store but it fell on deaf ears. They even tried to work out a compromise by expressing willingness to agree to a 25 per cent wage hike, but that too fell on deaf ears.  The situation turned out to be a congenial take off ground for the virus to attack me further. It fatally attacked more than half of my organs as a result of which about 400 factories went dead soon afterwards. Close on the heels of that was the Central government virus attack in the form of a 10 per cent duty on import of raw cashew nuts introduced for the first time thereby making survival all the more difficult for me.

workers to the support of their employers

 In that critical condition the Central government gave another blow by following up the import duty imposition with a withdrawal of the export incentives cashew kernels had been enjoying for long and this again badly hit my health. Added to that, uncertainty over the refund of crores of rupees collected under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) head from cashew processors who import raw nuts with 100% export obligation o

f processed nuts under the Advance Authorisation Scheme (AAS) also played its own role in further pushing the cashew into a crisis.

All these together created a situation where cashew business turned into a loss maker for the majority of those who owned me. Two of by bosses committed suicide when they went neck deep in debts. Another four attempted the extreme step but were saved by the timely intervention of family members. The working capital loans availed by at least one hundred persons have been declared nonperforming assets by banks and their properties on the verge of being attached. The situation turned so critical for me that the cashew workers who till then had a tradition of holding demonstrations only against my bosses, came out to the streets holding demonstrations against the Central government in support of the demands raised by my bosses. 

With no remedy in sight, more and more factories downed shutters and out of the about 800 registered factories in Quilon, now only close to one hundred are functioning and that too by staring at uncertainty. My contention is that in spite of being a major foreign exchange earner and provider of employment especially for women,  this state of affairs was brought about by the lack of a proper cashew policy from the side of successive governments. That was because of the deliberate failure from the government side to look upon the cashew sector as an industry and not as a vote bank. They failed to understand that only if the industry survives will the workers survive and the vote bank exist.

And here in Quilon I am on the bed of a terminal ward reminiscing about my good old days but simultaneously heartbroken when I feel my organs that still somehow run are getting weaker and weaker with the threat of closing down sooner or later looming large.  But I still have an intuition that if the ongoing cashew plantation promotion scheme initiated by the present KSCDC Chairman S. Jayamohan is taken forward sincerely it could act as a panacea to revive me.  If Vietnam could overtake Quilon in cashew processing Quilon can win back my good old days with raw nut production, I am confident...Pray for me.