<p>Cashew stakeholders in the country have started to strategize on the best ways to boost up the cash crop, which is increasingly fetching lucrative prices on both domestic and international markets...</p> <p>Last week, cashew stakeholders met in Dar es Salaam to brainstorm and digest best practices that could lift up the productivity of the sector, including ways to assist cashew farmers move out of traditional and old-fashioned farming methods.</p> <p>“This is one of the highly-paying crop (cashew)...but we need strategies to make produce results we expect to see from cashew sector,” said one of the stakeholders at the Cashew Investors Conference (CIC) which revolved on the central theme of “Invest in cashew processing; for job creation and economic growth.” The two-day conference was organized by Agriculture Non State Actors Forum (ANSAF) in collaboration with Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT), Cashew Board of Tanzania (CBT) and Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC).</p> <p>At the official closing of the conference, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Maria Bilia has argued local and foreign investors to intersect and play together to strategize their investment plans in order to develop cashew sector. The minister noted that time was ripe for the investors to seriously think about investing in the cashew industry in a quest to enhance 100 percent processing in the country, a move which could add value to the crop and enable all players—farmers, traders and the government, to get more revenue from cashew exports and domestic marketing.</p> <p>“On this closing session on behalf of government, I may call all of us to work together to optimize our potential and bring the cashew to be among of the best sector to invest and enhance processing in Tanzania, processing a cashew nut create a fair competition to balance trade in the sector business,” she said. Without the value edition to the raw cashew, it is impossible to have a balance trade in Tanzania, the minister said, noting that “We have witness and we continue to witness from our business partner countries we export our raw material to benefit from the finished cashew product now it is our time to turn the sector and benefit our country.”</p> <p>Bilia said that the two days forum has reached discussion whose resolution to process cashew nuts in Tanzania. Through interventions from both financial and technical institution such as NSSF, EPZ, DSE, NMB and other stakeholders the goal of processing all the cashew nut in Tanzania is achievable.</p> <p>Regulatory bodies include CBT and Tanzania warehouse licensing board has also indicated the willingness and commitment to support value edition for the cashew sector. “There is many challenges facing cashew nut production and processing in Tanzania, but I am sure this two-day conference enabled you understand these challenges and explore ways to solve them through strategic partnership and collaboration between farmers, investors and government,” said Bilia The conference attracted about 150 local and foreign participants from various sectors in one platform to develop a strategy to identify and combat the challenges that currently encounter Tanzania’s Cashew Industry and to increase the opportunities to support the growth of small holder farmers.</p> <p>The objective of the Cashew Investors Conference is to enhance the possibilities of processing cashews within Tanzania thereby increasing the country’s local production and economy as a whole. The stakeholders gathered to strategise and put cashew back on its rightful place in the economy, with discussions focusing on the optimization and realization of the true potential of the crop that is harvested by some of the poorest communities in Tanzania.</p> <p>The first ever-cashew investors conference comes as Tanzania currently is losing US$ 110 million per annually from exporting raw cashew nuts and looses 45,000 jobs that would see women and youth have access to employment. The conference participants called for urgent and strategic interventions that would see to it that Tanzania realize its dream of 100 percent cashew processing. Audax Rukonge, Executive Director of ANSAF, key organizer of the forum, said that the conference stemmed from a study that was commissioned by ANSAF in collaboration with the Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT) to review the regulatory environment for the cashew nut sector which was financed by BEST-AC. The research aimed to find out what interventions are necessary to put the sector in its rightful place in the economy.</p> <p>Over many years, the Tanzanian cashew sector has been a serial under achiever despite the presence of many of the factors necessary for the development of a thriving cashew nut producing and processing industry, according to Rukonge, adding that “the sector has been successful in the production of cashew nuts but has not reached levels of development that might be expected given the product quality and seasonal advantages present.” Giving descriptive analysis on the situation on the ground, he said currently the economic fate of Cashew farmers in Tanzania is in the hands of Indian merchants who had built big warehouses at various places in their country to store the commodity and cashew stakeholders point out that if it is not a profitable business those merchants would not be staying in Tanzania to buy the cashew raw material directly for export.</p> <p>“Many recommendations were made but one solution is that Tanzania must process cashew in the country rather than exporting raw cashew nuts. This is a most urgent need to directly impact on the prices across the value chain and maximize gains from the crop by increasing local capacity to process as well as seeking other markets other than India the main buyer of raw cashew nut,” Rukonge noted.</p> <p>The present processing establishment in Tanzania cannot absorb the current and projected production levels, with conference participants stressing the need to invest heavily in ultra-modern cashew processing plants and assure the consumers on the safety of food they buy; ultimately contribute to realization of good income among smallholders.</p> <p>Overall objectives of the meeting were overall putting cashew back on its rightful place by optimizing and realizing its contribution to the country's economy, job creation and individual incomes through attracting meaningful investors who will enhance 100 per cent capacity in cashew processing, according to an official statement issued at the end of the meeting.</p> <p>"Specific objectives of the conference include bringing together the investors, financiers, producers and regulators as key players along the cashew value-chain for increased investment in cashew processing, and identify avenues and opportunities through which chain actors (small, medium and large) can benefit and symbiotically benefit each other, and agree on milestones and roadmap on increased production capacity, and 100 per cent export of processed cashew by 2020," added the statement.</p> <p>Conference attracted both public and private sponsors, who are key stakeholders in the Cashew Processing Industry such as The National Micro-Finance Bank (NMB), Lindi and Mtwara Agribusiness Support (LIMAS), Hansa-Diamond Motors, Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS), The Foundation for Civil Society (FCS), OLAM and BEST-AC.</p> <p> </p>