info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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African cashew producing countries are investing heavily in production and processing. While looking for processors, the governments of African cashew producing countries still hold large stocks of cashews.
The last two years have not been good for cashew nut producers in the region, even as they work to increase production. From Côte d'Ivoire, the continent's largest producer, to Tanzania, governments and donors are investing in multiple points in the value chain.
"We will plant 15mn new cashew nuts every year between now and then," Japhet Ngailonga Hasunga, the Tanzanian Minister for Agriculture, said at the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) conference in Dar es Salaam in November "as well as provide better seeds and field extension services."
The country produced 313, 000 tonnes in 2017/8 but far less in 2018/9; it plans to increase this to 1m tonnes by 2024.
The area under cashew production in Africa will increase by a million hectares in the next four years, according to a report by Mordor Intelligence.
Côte d'Ivoire will still have the highest production, owing to its higher yields.
But the lingering question is Africa's low processing capacity, with almost countries exporting primarily to Vietnam, Cambodia, and India. Both homegrown and foreign companies are setting up on the continent, supported by government policies and donor projects.
Without any substantial processing capacity, Tanzania still had to find a buyer for its now government-held cashew nut stock.
At the beginning of its current harvest season, in September, the country launched an online bidding system in an attempt to enhance transparency and get farmers better prices.
But the government's mid-term plan is the same as everywhere else, to increase local processing. "All of Africa's cashew nuts should be processed in Africa," Francis Alfred, the Director General of the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania, says. By the time it quadruples its production in 2024, he added, the country will have the capacity to process half its production.
Côte d'Ivoire exports nearly all of its cashew nut production, but the government's policies towards farmers and processors have been heralded as forward-thinking. Farmers get 60 percent of international prices, but with price fluctuations in the last two years, policymakers in the West African country have doubled down on growing local processing.
"The easiest way for farmers to realise profits is to process locally," Arthur Coulibaly, the advisor to the Ivory Coast President on Industry and Economic Transformation, concurs.
In nearly all cashew nut producing countries, local processors are experimenting with products, as they edge away from the traditional snack/ingredient divide of cashew nut demand. You can now buy a cashew nut wine in Tanzania, or a brandy in Ghana, or chocolate-coated nuts in Ivory Coast.
