<p></p><p>RAW cashew nut from Tanzania is more expensive than West Africa's because of its good quality, coupled with farmers' exaggerated input costs.According to the Cashew nut Processors Association (CPA) Secretary General, Mr Joseph Haule, Ghana has the highest price in West Africa, pegged at $700 (1.05m/-) per ton, while in Tanzania the same quantity costs as much as $1480 (2.2m/-). "If you buy the crop at the warehouse price of 1,300/- per kilo, you will have to sell at $958 (1.4m/-),but if you buy at 2,000/-, the price rises to $1,480 per ton. It is not easy for buyers to rush for our crop," he said. </p> <p>The prices in other competing countries are Benin ($400), Ivory Coast ($650), Guinea ($650), Bukina Faso ($600), Nigeria ($650) and Mozambique ($850).Mr Haule said the crop was expensive because Tanzania has not conducted independent cost evaluation of farmers' inputs. "Farmers usually exaggerate the costs of inputs. How can they, for example say the cost of an empty sack is 4,000/-?" he asked.Sometimes farmers cheat, saying they sprayed cashew trees with insecticides three or four times, while they only did it once or twice throughout the season.He said if proper costing was carried out, the price could drop to between $700 and $800 per ton. He also warned that the government's decision to bail-out cooperative societies for them to pay farmers a staggering 65bn/- debt, would not attract buyers because the world market is currently saturated. </p><p>Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) Acting Director General Mr Ayub Mbawa told the 'Daily News' in Mtwara over the weekend that he did not expect any drastic short-term intervention to rescue the stranded 85,000 tons worth over 100bn/-.However, the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Eng Christopher Chiza, said the government would make sure farmers were paid their dues while the issue of traders would be solved later.On his part, Mr Haule advised the government to intervene by pressuring cooperatives to accept low prices from buyers. "If buyers propose 1,300/- per kilo, the government should not hesitate to accept the price," he noted.There is a general consensus among cashew nut stakeholders including processors, cooperatives, government, farmers, trade experts and politicians that the only lasting solution is to process the commodity locally.This year Tanzania produced 157,000 tons out of which only 72,000 tons were bought by traders at warehouse prices of between 1,500/- and 2,000/- </p><p> </p><br><p></p>