Mozambique: Cashew nut production forecast to rise to 160,000 t in 2024 – government

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Mozambique: Cashew nut production forecast to rise to 160,000 t in 2024 – government

3:38 CAT | 02 Nov 2023

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Notícias]

Mozambique expects to produce 160,000 tonnes of cashew nuts in 2024, 1.5% more than this year’s estimate, despite climate effects, according to government information that Lusa has accessed today.

According to documents supporting the Economic and Social Plan of the State Budget for next year, under discussion in the National Assembly, this production comes from 9,734,000 cashew trees, from 188,983 producers, across the country.

The document predicts “that the increase in the production volume of cashew nuts will increase from around 157,496 tonnes to around 160,000 tonnes in 2024”.

In 2020, Mozambican cashew nut production stood at 139,945 tonnes, and in 2021, at 144,823 tonnes.

“Forecasts indicate that the year 2024 will be marked by the occurrence of the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon, which influences the climate in Mozambique, causing adverse weather phenomena, which could cause a lack of precipitation in the south and central areas, and floods in the north of the country, with significant impacts on the agrarian sector,” the government document warns.

For much of the last century, Mozambique was the world’s largest producer of cashew nuts, opening Africa’s first processing factory in 1960. Activity declined after independence in 1975.

Currently, it is estimated that more than one million Mozambican families grow and sell cashew, and the cashew processing sector employs more than 8,000 people in the country.

In the first six months of the year, Mozambique’s export of cashew nuts generated US$53 million, more than last year, making cashew the main agricultural product sold abroad by the country.

According to a previous report by the Bank of Mozambique, Mozambique in 2022 exported agricultural products worth US$562.3 million (€531 million), including US$51.7 million (€48.7 million) in cashew nuts.

In the first quarter of 2023, cashew exports amounted to US$50.8 million (€47.9 million), growing in the second quarter by US$2.2 million (€2 million).

This performance already translates into Mozambique’s best year for cashew nut sales, which since 2016 have fluctuated between US$14.8 million (€14 million) in 2018 and US$51.7 million (€48.7 million) last year.

Mozambique exported US$181.8 million (€171.4 million) in agricultural products in the six months already recorded this year, which represents less than 5% of the almost US$3,715 million (€3,502 million) of total export value in this period.

Source: Lusa