When the topic of globalization and offshoring is discussed, Americans have a hard time realizing that this is not only an American issue. India gets bad rep because a large amount of companies are utilizing India's cheaper labor. However, India has been the long reining cashew capital of the world; they are losing those jobs to their successor, Vietnam. This is just another example that trade economics are an ever-changing, fluid environment.
India's city of Kollam has been booming due to the 800 factories that process (shelling, roasting, packaging) cashews which are then shipped to other countries for consumption since the 1930s. In 1935, India controlled almost all of the cashew exports in the world. Today, Kollam only has 100 factories still in use. Many believe that the downfall is due to India's reliance on their cheap labor. Almost all the process is still done by hand and has not been changed in decades.
This opened the window of opportunity for Vietnam. They started using technology to do all the process of cashews which made their systems cost less then in India. Over the years, India has lost more and more business to Vietnam. Vietnams use of technology was motivated by two reasons: it increased the productivity of their workers and they felt pressure to meet food safety measures of the developed countries (which meant less contact time between the cashews and the workers). Today, Vietnams factories process 50 tons of cashews per day with only 30 workers. Now Vietnam accounts for 70% of all the world cashew exports.
To read the entire article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-cashews-explain-globalization-1512142823
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