The cashew nut season in Tanzania has recently commenced and according to a recent report by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), almost 40 per cent of the nation’s harvested cashew nuts have been exported, over the period of the 2018/2019 season, which means about 90,000 tonnes have been exported.
Per the BoT report, Tanzania cashew stock for the 2018/2019 season is over 225,000 tones, whereas the amount of the respective income garnered has not yet been revealed.
The Ministry of Agriculture has confidence that the sales of cashew nut to go on quite well in this season, taking the new measures put in place to fortify accurate and effective bids and sales over space and time.
This includes the newly ushered digital auction system, that will be executed per the open digital auction platform operational standards, giving an ample room to all interested buyers to bid their stake into the auction, run national wide and globally.
“All buyers can participate, whether from India, Vietnam, Czechoslovak, America, New Zealand, Australia, they will all be able to patriciate” Minister of Agriculture Japhet Hasunga commented before members of the press earlier this year.
During the 13th Annual Cashew Conference and Expo which was set to attract over 500 participants from across the globe, crucial issues were revealed by the acting Director-General of the Tanzania Cashew nut Board (CBT), Mr. Francis Alfred regarding the progress of the cashew nuts exports.
Speaking on the sidelines, Mr. Alfred (as quoted by The Citizen newspaper), highlighted other export figures from BoT adding, “Until today, we had exported a total of 114,626 tonnes of the crop,”.
Patently, upon the reviewal of the BoT’s monthly economic reviews (September, 2019), which usually indicate various aspects of exports, no related data reflecting the latter was indicated, rather than—the report showed that the value of traditional goods exports fell by 55 per cent on year-to-year, which is equivalent to $ 508.8 million in the year ending August 2019.
Additionally, the report shows that the traditional exported goods declined except coffee, particularly, cashew nut, declined due to the fall in both, volume and unit prices in the world market.
Further down the line, the October economic review report, displayed another set of progression on the latter, citing “Traditional goods exports declined to USD 563.5 million in the year ending September 2019 from USD 1,160.8 million in the corresponding period in 2018, as all traditional goods declined, save for coffee and tea. Cashew nuts exports, in particular, decreased owing to a fall in prices in the world market and volume due to delays in exporting after government intervention to safeguard farmers’ earnings. It is estimated that about 90,000 tonnes of cashew nuts stock for the 2018/19 crop-season were exported in August and September 2019” the report reveals.
Despite the latter, the ministry has high hopes for the sub-sector growth and looks forward to its rise on top, like the highest forex earner crop.
Earlier this year, during a parliamentary session, Minister Hasunga highlighted various steps taken by the sector, including a 7.2 per cent rise in strategic crop production for the year 2017/2018, citing cashew nuts as one of the top-hitting crops in production.
Further, the ministry has also circulated more than 12 million seedlings across 17 regions cultivating the cash-crop national wide. However, via the cashew nut board, Tanzania anticipates producing over 10 million seedlings for the year 2019/2020 to enhance production of the crop.
As of March 2019, the cashew nut board of Tanzania has registered more than 200,000 farmers, topping up with concrete measures to build a cashew nut processing facility with a capacity to process over 1,800 tons per year.
