<p>Cashew sales in the 2015/16 agricultural season totalled 100,000 tons and a value of US$23.1 million, the national director of the National Cashew Institute (Incaju) said Wednesday.IlÃdio Bande, who was speaking at a sector meeting in Manica province, in central Mozambique, said that the amount of cashews sold last year was a 25 percent increase on the previous year, when 80,000 tons were sold.Bande said that the cashews were sold to the Asian and American markets and that unprocessed cashews were sent to India and Vietnam, whilst the nuts were sent to the United States, according to Mozambican news agency AIM.The biggest challenge for the sector, the director said, is to increase annual production to 120,000 tons in the next few seasons. The family-based production sector is being encouraged to increase cashew production, he said.The Incaju meeting, which is due to end Thursday, brings together sector officials and notable cashew nut producers.In Mozambique the provinces of Nampula, Zambezia, Manica, Inhambane and Gaza are the largest producers of cashews and this activity is conducted on a large scale by family-based producers. (macauhub/MZ)<br></p>