Cashew industry projected to transform
agriculture in Africa
The Gambia
is well known for its finest quality products of raw cashew nuts; hence it has
been identified as the ideal gateway for cashew export in the SeGaBi (Senegal, Gambia and Guinea Bissau)
sub-region.
The country has seen a tremendous increase in cashew
production in the last five years with an estimated total of about 20,000
tonnes in 2011, compared to 6,000 tonnes in 2006. Given the prevailing good climatic
condition, the Cashew Alliance of The Gambia (CAG) has projected a yield of
approximately 25,000 tonnes in the next cashew season.
“Gambian cashew is one of the best in the sub-region with an
outturn of 50-56 percent and nut count of 190-210 per kilogramme and is highly
sought after by international buyers,” the CAG said on Tuesday.
The 6th Annual Conference of the African Cashew
Alliance (ACA) - September 19-22, 2011 officially opened on Tuesday at a local
hotel in the town of Kololi, situated west of
the Gambian capital, Banjul.
A record 350 delegates are attending the event which is being held under the
theme “Bringing the Cashew World Together!” and is organized by the ACA in
cooperation with the CAG.
“The growing cashew sector of the country is based purely on
commercial viability of the product, the dynamism of the private sector and the
support of the Government of The Gambia,” Mr Momodou Ceesay, CAG President said
at the opening.
“This year, Gambia
exported some 65,000 tonnes of raw cashew nut (RCN). The prospect for RCN
export in the next two years is very good as demand continue to outstrip supply
worldwide, with Gambia
being the ideal gateway for export in the SeGaBi sub-region.”
He said as the industry becomes more popular among smallholder
farmers, it will directly affect the economic and social growth and the
development of the country. “Therefore, we must strive to improve the
productivity of cashews through breeding and best management practices.”
This, he said, will encourage farmers as they’ll earn more
income per unit area of land.
In his opening remarks, Gambia
Minister for Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, Abdou Colley
noted the cashew sector in Africa is
characterized by small rural farmers with low yields, poor quality nuts and
lack of business skills with consequential effects on their earnings.
He said “Cashew farmers in Africa
rarely organise themselves into associations, thus weakening their bargaining
position with dealers. They have little or no access to international markets
and little processing capabilities resulting to low level processing of cashew
in Africa.”
However, recent developments in the global cashew industry
are rosy and have shown the industry’s possible transformation of agriculture
in Africa. Based on this backdrop, Mr Colley
challenge smallholder farmers who struggle to make as little as 90-330 Euros
per year to take advantage of the industry’s huge potential.
“As world production hardly meet the rising and
highly-prized demands in Europe, North America, China
and India,
every effort must be made to develop the industry’s supply chain in order to
lift a significant portion of our populations out of poverty,” he stressed.
ACA President, Idrisa Kilangi of Tanzania |
When he took his turn, the acting ACA President, Mr Idrissa Kilangi
also noted that the unregulated market prices remain a major challenge in the
cashew sector.
“As we are speaking, farmers cannot tell what the price of
cashew will be next year,” he lament. “The potential to improve and increase
production can be achieved but farmers lack mainly the incentives and capacity
to do so. There is an ardent need to assist farmers in Africa.”
He said giving “poor African farmers” incentive should be a
top priority, alongside the provision of new seedlings, sprayers, good market
prices, and assisting them in agricultural techniques.
“We should help them with machinery input, and subsidies
input to these farmers because if we leave the input expensive they will not
buy it. Their capacity of production will go low, so we have to play our role
to make sure that farmers increase their production,” said Mr Kilangi who is
also a cashew processor from Tanzania.
“Governments also have to do what they have to do to help farmers. This is very
important in helping farmers.”
The Director, Private Sector Development
of the Africa Cashew initiative (ACI) Ms Mary Adzanyo noted that market
analysis shows an increase in the demand for cashew world wide. However, she
argued that the production of Raw Cashew Nuts is far from meeting this increasing
demand.
“Bringing the cashew world together is what we need to
achieve sufficient quantities and high quality of raw cashew nuts to meet
international demands; a sustainable and competitive processing industry in
Africa; cashew sector favoring political and economical environments in the
producing countries and long-term, reliable linkages and exchange of knowledge
and experience,” said Ms Adzanyo who was speaking on behalf of the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
“Cashew is becoming more and more important in the world and
especially in Africa. Let us not only talk
about the market demand, let us also reflect what that means for the African
cashew farmers.”
For her part, Renata Clarke, a representative of the Food and
Agricultural Organisation, said the FAO is not only concerned with the
eradication of “non-safety food items but also to sustain safety standards.”
In this regard, she informed the confab that the FAO is
currently implementing a food safety project in Iran, aimed at dealing with the
harmful effects of aflotoxin in agricultural produce. This, she adds, is to
ensure food safety, quality and sustainability.
- Author: Modou S. Joof for The Voice newspaper
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