African Cashew Alliance

Daily News; Wednesday, December 20, 2006 @00:05

CASHEW nut buyers in southern Tanzania have assured the Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr Steven Wassira, that they will buy all the crop harvested this season, which is estimated at 100,000 tonnes.

The minister told the ‘Daily News’ yesterday that so far over 65,000 tonnes of cashew nuts have been bought from the farmers and the remaining 35,000 tonnes are likely to be bought by next month.

"We met the buyers yesterday (Monday) to discuss the way forward, on quickly buying the remaining tonnages," Mr Wassira said adding "they assured me of buying them."

The minister said most of this season's crop had been bought though he was quick to add that some more nuts are yet to be purchased.

He named the districts that still have unsold cashew nuts as Masasi, Tunduru, Kilwa, Liwale, Lindi Rural and Namtumbo. The meeting dwelt on how to hasten buying from these districts.

"Price was a non-issue at the meeting. We dwelt on how to quickly buy the remaining nuts, and agreed on the way forward," Mr Wassira added.

The main issue at the meeting was the quality of the nuts. But the minister said the matter was solved by agreeing that farmers and the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT) should grade the crop.

He said the seven buyers whose licences were revoked earlier last week were fairly involved in the nullifying process as the ministry wrote to all the buyers.

"We asked them to show how many tonnes they would buy and the time frame involved. They neither responded nor filed complaints to date," Mr Wassira said.

The Monday meeting involved a delegation from the ministry, buyers, and the cashew board.

CBT forecasted in this three-month cashew season—from October to December—to buy 110,000 tonnes but are sceptical due to price wrangles. Last season 80,000 tonnes were purchased.