23 June 2008
Maputo — Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau are to work together on research to improve the production of cashew nuts in the two countries, and to share information on cashew markets.
A memorandum of understanding to this effect was signed in Maputo between the Mozambican National Cashew Institute (INCAJU), and the Guinean National Commission for the Development of the Cashew Sub-Sector, during a visit by the chairperson of this commission, Andre Lopes da Veiga.
Veiga told AIM that the Guinean commission is greatly interested in learning from the Mozambican cashew experience, and that Mozambique can perhaps benefit from Guinean cashew varieties which seem more resistant to pests and disease than the Mozambican plants.
The Mozambican cashew trees have been plagued by powdery mildew, which dramatically reduces yields of cashew nuts. So far, the only way of controlling the mildew is through expensive chemical sprays.
Veiga said that the Guinean trees do not have the same disease problems. "This leads us to believe that the cashews of Guinea-Bissau are more resistant to certain pests", he said, "hence Mozambique's interest in understanding the characteristics of the Guinean genetic material".
The two countries are to exchange genetic cashew material, and see if this can lead to viable cashew varieties that will flourish under Mozambican conditions, and will resist powdery mildew and other pests. Meanwhile, said Veiga, Guinea-Bissau would study Mozambique's pest control programmes, in case the diseases did eventually spread to the Guinean trees.
Guinea-Bissau is also interested in Mozambique's experience in processing cashew nuts, and exporting processed kernels. The processing industry came close to collapse in the late 1990s, because of World Bank insistence that Mozambique must stop protecting the industry.
This forced the closure of all the large, mechanized processing plants, and the nuts were all exported raw to India instead. But since then there has been a revival, with the opening of smaller factories using manual or semi manual methods to shell the nuts. The World Bank, its fingers badly burnt from the previous experience, is currently not trying to interfere with the modest protection measures still in force.
In 2004, 5,000 tonnes of nuts were processed in the Mozambican factories, and that figure has now risen to 30,000 tonnes a year. With the conclusion of factories that are currently under production the installed capacity will rise to 49,000 tonnes of nuts a year.
Total cashew production this year, according to INCAJU forecasts, will be 95,000 tonnes. This means that Guinea-Bissau, which used to be considered a minor producer, has overtaken Mozambique, with an annual production of 130,000 tonnes.
"Mozambique is now in the front line in the transformation of African cashew, regaining the place it held in the past", said Veiga. "Guinea-Bissau only processes three per cent of its production. That's very little for the fifth largest cashew producer in the world".
Veiga noted that the target for the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) is that each country should process at least half of its cashew production.
Veiga said that three processing plants are now being built, which will raise Guinea-Bissau's processing capacity to 10,000 tonnes a year. "Even so, that's very poor, given our high level of production", he admitted.
"Guinea-Bissau only woke up to industrialization a short while ago", he said. "Since we exported all our cashews raw to India, we didn't think about processing until 2004. There had been some small factories as from 1997, but it was only in 2004 that we began to talk about industrialization proper".
Guinea-Bissau is much more dependent on cashew than Mozambique. The nuts account for 80 per cent (and sometimes 90 per cent) of Guinean export earnings.
Veiga said Guinea-Bissau is also interested in working with Mozambique to influence the cashew market. "One country on its own can't do much", he said, "but if we act with Mozambique and with a couple of the other larger African cashew producers, then we can influence the market. That's the idea I came here to discuss with our Mozambican brothers. If we unite, we can influence and even dictate the rules of the market".
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