Kollam, 72 km from Trivandrum, is the centre of the country's cashew trading and processing industry. It is also an important hub for the state's marine products industry, with the port of Neendakara being the centre for trawlers and ice plants.

For all it's natural gifts of wide rivers, dominant hills and forest, lakes and plains, there is the throb of a vibrant industrial activity. Kollam which is a veritable Kerala in miniature is gifted as it is with Kerala's very representative features - sea, lakes, plains, mountains, rivers, streams, backwaters, forest, vast green fields and tropical crop of every variety both food crop and cash crop.