The Cashew Nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) will start paying farmers next week to cover the last two auctions of the 2020/21 trading seasons. The season kicked off early this month in Mtwara and Lindi Regions as more sessions are expected to start on November 4 and 22 next month in Coast and Ruvuma Regions, respectively. CBT Acting Director- General Alfred Francis said the payment for the first auctions was released last week, but farmers will be paid next week. He said CBT was committed to ensuring farmers got their payment in 10 working days after selling cashew nut. "CBT is to ensure farmers are paid on time and this is planned to ensure they receive their money in 10 working days," he said, urging farmers and agricultural marketing cooperative society to ensure their cashew nuts were of good quality. He said at a press conference that many companies were expected to participate in the ongoing trading season compared to the last season after CBT registered 67 firms compared to last season. "We have registered a good number of companies to participate in the auctions. As of the last two weeks of auctioning, we had 67 firms registered to participate in the auctions compared to the last season where we had only 63 firms," he said. The CBT boss noted that eight auctions had been conducted in Mtwara and Lindi Regions and 43,312 tonnes of raw cashew nuts were sold to registered firms with demand accounting for 127,803 tonnes. The CBT boss said the cashew nuts were auctioned at the minimum price of 2248/- and maximum price of 2207/- per kilogramme through a bid box and through online platforms at the minimum price of 2,309/- and maximum price of 2,607/-. He said at least 98 per cent of the auctioned cashew nuts were first grade with a shell out-turn of 48-53. "The cashew nuts sold were Grade One, except 14,000kg out of 43,312 tonnes were Grade Two," he said. He urged farmers to ensure their products were Grade One to enable the country compete in the global market. "The quality of the cashew nuts we produce in the country is the major issue that enables Tanzania to compete in the global market. I urge farmers to ensure their products are up to standard in the market," he said. Mr Francis said CBT was set to ensure transparency in the auctioning of the products to enable farmers choose the highest bidders through both systems of bid box and online platform which ran through Tanzania Mercantile Exchange (TMX).