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Mozambique not enough funds to invest in cashew production by qrt etget
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Mozambique not enough funds to invest in cashew production by QRT ETGET
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| Article Posted: 08/12/2011 |
| Article Views: 88 |
| Articles Written: 2163 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
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Mozambique not enough funds to invest in cashew production |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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To recover the levels of production of the 1970s, when Mozambique was producing 200,000 tonnes of cashew nuts a year, would require massive investment that is beyond the country's current financial capacity.
The government's National Cashew Institute (INCAJU) thus thinks it utopian to imagine that Mozambique can recover the place it once held as the top producer in the world cashew market. Current production levels are less than 100,000 tonnes a year.
Speaking to reporters, the deputy director of INCAJU, Raimundo Mathule, admitted that putting Mozambique back into the front rank of cashew producers would need an investment in production of 60 million dollars, and such sums are simply not available. Instead INCAJU is setting itself the modest task of replacing old and dying cashew trees with new saplings.
"We cannot, in less than 10 years, return to the 215,000 tonnes that Mozambique produced when the country had trees that were at most 10 to 20 years old", said Mathule. "For us, it's utopian to think that we can re-occupy a leading position in cashew production in the coming period".
Relative newcomers to the international cashew market, such as Vietnam, got to their current position by investing 60 to 70 million dollars in production alone (not to mention processing) over the past three years. INCAJU does not have access to such sums.
Mozambique lost its top position in the cashew league partly because of the war of destabilisation in the 1980s, which made cashew harvesting and care of the trees impossible in parts of the country, partly because the trees simply grew older, and partly because of the unchecked spread of insect pests and fungal diseases.
The cashew processing industry was then killed off on the orders of the World Bank which, in the mid-1990s, made an end to protection for the industry a condition for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loans. The new owners of privatised cashew processing factories found that the rules had suddenly been changed, and one by one all the large cashew plants closed.
The World Bank, blinded by ideology, thought it would be fine for the peasant harvesters of the nuts if every last cashew nut in the country was exported raw to India, and none were processing into kernels in Mozambican factories.
There has been a modest recovery in recent years. Small processing plants have sprung up, but cannot handle anywhere near the number of nuts that the large, mechanized factories of the past dealt with.
INCAJU has concentrated on spraying trees against powdery mildew, and on planting cashew varieties that are more resistant to pests. As a result production has edged up and in recent years has averaged round 90,000 tonnes a year.
For INCAJU analysts, the key problem is the age of the trees. The average Mozambican cashew tree is 40 years old. Trees have reached their peak of production by the time they are 25 or 30 years old - after that, yields decline. Spraying against mildew buys some time - but INCAJU is convinced that the long term solution is to replace the trees.
INCAJU says it is stepping up the production of saplings. It has been producing 1.5 million a year, but hopes to double this figure.
But once the saplings are in the hands of the peasant producers, they will need technical assistance in caring for them until they have grown into productive trees. Given the scattered nature of cashew production, this is a huge logistical challenge. I am China Auto Suppliers writer, reports some information about how are bricks made , garage floor epoxy coating.
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