KOLLAM: Cashew Board, which was formed by the state government to avoid mediators in cashew nut import, suffered losses of Rs 17.60 crores after disposing of 3086 tonnes of bad quality cashew nuts imported from Mozambique.

Cashew Board met losses of Rs 3 crores in their first deal in September 2018 when the imported 3100 tonnes of cashew were disposed off. Thus the total losses will amount to Rs 20.60 crores. The total deal is worth Rs 115 crores. There is a recent deal for cashew from Ghana which is a much larger 11000 tonnes. Buying cashew at $1530 per ton in the name of ‘outturn’ has resulted in such massive losses.

The government formed the Cashew Board back in May 2017 as several instances of irregularities and losses led to CBI probe. Outturn is the quality level of cashew nut. It is determined by opening up cashew shells and checking the quantity of nut.