CASHEW MARKET: CHALLENGES & INSIGHTS
Cashew production, the manufacture of cashew kernels, its by-products, and the journey to rightful consumption defy orderliness. It cannot be commanded.
The increase in offered prices for cashew kernels has seen an unprecedented rate of rise of USD 2,246 per metric ton within just 15 working days.
Prof. Peter Drucker, a less quoted and understood management teacher, conveyed that management is a convergence of data, information, and knowledge. The application of knowledge broadly can enable organizations to perform.
It must be emphasized that both raw cashews and cashew kernels, along with their by-products, adhere to medieval business practices and classical economics. Attempts to fit them into 21st-century practices are commendable, but cashews, both RCN and kernels, will defy artificial intelligence while accepting applied intelligence.
Both raw cashews and cashew kernels conform to the classical economics of perfect competition, where the slightest change in demand and supply alters the price. The question then is whether markets are organized. Both raw cashews and cashew kernels have defied market organization.
Cashew kernels are a century-old product. Twentieth-century economists, both classical and later, have employed metrics and wisdom in developing theories. Each theory has its merits, but any wise person who generates a theory also points out its limitations.
What is remarkable about raw cashews is that they are seeds waiting to transform into one of nature’s loveliest products—the kernel of an inedible nut.
The nature of raw cashews is that they love freedom. Any interference in their journey causes them to deteriorate subtly. They do not perish; they decay.
Human nature has a sense that value should not be destroyed, but it also permits the loss of value. Commerce always operates within a series of limitations, while imagination takes one beyond borders. It is perseverance, persistence, and sheer hard work that produce and present a kernel.
Raw cashews appear hardy, but their molecules dance and play inside. The kernel is instantly edible but needs preservation and nurturing until every gram is enjoyed in consumption.
The modifications that cashews go through are complex, making room for complications and the attention to them.
There cannot be prescriptions until the diagnosis is completed. There cannot be predictions or forecasts until one completely understands.
Interference by governments, unless proportionate and in genuine public interest, hurts all trades. These burdens affect any businessman, regardless of their shades of honesty.
Delving deeply into cashews or any part of nature is pure joy. Crass commerce is part of our daily lives that one enjoys.
People expect a lot. Here’s what is happening in the market:
# Raw cashews were pressed below its true value; no equilibrium value in a neutral currency has been established.
# Cashew kernels are now quoted on a bilateral basis, and contracts remain in jeopardy without settling at their true value.
# Nature has restored equilibrium, wiping out excess supplies with lesser outputs this year.
# Supply and demand in individual markets will cause prices to fluctuate.
# Cashew fundamentals adapt through substitution; one cannot consume what one cannot have. Consumers vote.
# The world has forward and spot markets. Spot markets are in a difficult position and will set the price. Forward markets will freeze.
# Capital is always the winner.
As mutual funds say, “past performance is not a guide to the future.”
Cashew requires studies and is getting the necessary attention. Convergence is some time away. Arrive at your own conclusions and act nobly.
