<p></p><p>The world's cashew producer (or cashew), Côte d'Ivoire has seen its exports drop due to the leakage of part of its production to neighboring countries.</p> <p>In 2016, the country achieved a harvest of 725,000 tons early in the season, ahead of India while world production is 2.9 million tons. <br></p> <p>However, "at this stage, 200,000 tons of nuts were exported against 330,000 tons (...) in 2015 to the same period, a decrease of 40%," lamented Malamine Sanogo, director of cotton cashew Council (CCA), which manages the sector. <br></p> <p>He said the drop in exports reached 60% to India, which is both a major producer, processor and consumer of nuts used in cooking and cosmetics.</p> <p>"Export taxes are very high in Ivory Coast, the producer close to borders do not hesitate to sell their crops in Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso," said Adama Fousséni, an exporter. <br></p> <p>The purchase price to the farmers set in 2016 to 350 CFA francs (0.53 euro) per kilo is "low" compared to neighboring countries, added another farmer to explain the flight of production.</p> <p>"There is a production delay due to the weather phenomenon + el Nino + but not enough to threaten the production," said his side Augustin Planty, CEO of Ocean, an exporting company, considering the price charged "acceptable" . <br></p> <p>Officials have downplayed the extent of the fraud, calling especially the peasants to "improve quality to be more competitive on the international market." <br></p> <p>Faced with these difficulties, the Ivory Coast has decided to subsidize the industry to try to get the local processing rate of 5% to 30% or even 40% in some years. <br></p> <p>The raw cashew nuts are exported to India, Vietnam and Brazil, which have processing industries, while the main consumers are India (200,000 t), the US (150,000 t) and European Union (110,000 t).<br></p><p></p>