It was started for the first time in India in Mangalore in the second decade of the century. Mangalore is thus the birthplace of this industry. Thereafter the industry spread to other parts of the country. Now, nearly 80 percent of this industry in India is centered in and around Kollam in Kerala, and Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka accounts for about 12 percent (on the basis of the export made by the factories). The cashew nut cultivated are in the district I 1971-72 was 10,094 acres. But the produce of the districts is not sufficient to meet the requirement of the cashew nut factories. Hence large quantities of raw cashew nut are being imported from Africa. Some quantities are also obtained from the north kanara district, Maharastra and also from Kerala. The raw cashew nut is grown in India and made available to the cashew factories constitute hardly on-third of the total requirement and hence the need to fill the gap through imports.