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Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L) is an economically important tropical crop. The nut is among country's top four agricultural exports along with basmati rice, spices and tea. India is the largest producer of raw cashew nut contributing 20 per cent of total global production. This paper is aimed at understanding the export pattern of Indian cashew using Markov chain analysis. It was found that USA was the only stable importer of Indian cashew kernels. Though there were many major importers India could not hold the consistent share in global market. The competition from Vietnam was one of the major reasons for this downfall. Therefore policies to achieve competitive edge in global market are needed to be framed.
Cashew export, kernels, trend, Markov chain analysis
