From today, over 1,000 cashew zones to be tendered

PANAJI: Starting Wednesday, the state excise department will begin tendering cashew orchards that weren’t sold during the auction held last month. While those in Valpoi will be the first to be tendered, the process doesn’t guarantee that all zones will be taken.
A person in the trade said most distillers don’t take up zones during an auction or the subsequent tendering process because they prefer to acquire them at much lower rates in an open tender that is held later. An official, however, attributed the steady slump in demand for cashew orchards to the rising costs of labour.

Over half the cashew zones in each of the state’s 12 talukas are usually never taken up during auction. In Bicholim, for instance, the excise department was able to auction just 38 of the taluka’s 172 zones in January, earning it a revenue of Rs 1.9 lakh.

The situation was bleaker in Sattari; only 24 of its 677 zones were bought through auction. Among the prominent causes for the low response was the affliction of the Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), which deterred many from venturing into cashew orchards in the taluka. A health official, however, said awareness programmes and timely vaccination programmes have led plantation workers to gradually shed their fears.

The Canacona and Sanguem talukas, which jointly have the most cashew zones in South Goa, also got few takers. Of Sanguem’s 150 zones, only 41 were bought through auction. In Ponda, just nine of 131 zones were able to be auctioned.