Mozambique: Cashew production nears record highs set 50 years ago

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Cashew production nears record highs set 50 years ago

1:18 CAT | 27 Jun 2025

File photo: Macauhub

Sales of cashew nuts in Mozambique reached 195,400 tonnes in the last campaign, approaching the record set in the 1970s, when the country was one of the world’s largest producers, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries, cashew nut production in Mozambique reached over 200,000 tonnes per year 50 years ago, during the colonial period, with sales in the most recent 2024/2025 campaign approaching that historic record.

Until the mid-1970s, Mozambique was the world’s second largest producer of cashew nuts (210,000 tonnes processed in 1973), behind only India, which purchased a large part of Mozambique’s production at the time, and still does today.

After Mozambique’s independence on June 25, 1975, production fell to less than 10%, to around 15,000 to 20,000 tons per year, but has been growing annually since then, according to historical official data.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the almond value chain in Mozambique “involves around 1,047,000 families, 69 companies and 7,287 workers throughout the country” and in Maputo province alone this activity involves 32,168 families, making it “the main centre of almond consumption, generating countless business opportunities”.

“In these 50 years of independence, the almond value chain has been an inexhaustible source of opportunities by guaranteeing the generation of jobs, with cashew and macadamia being cash crops that make a strong contribution to the socioeconomic development of communities, even though they are exposed to several challenges arising from climate change,” the ministry recalls.

The Mozambican government estimates that the production of cashew nuts, one of the country’s main cash crops, will increase by 23% this year, to 218,900 tonnes, with the area under cultivation also increasing.

According to government figures, the production area is expected to grow by 26% in the current agricultural season, to 64,000 hectares across the country, compared to 50,600 hectares in the previous season, when 177,650 tonnes of cashew nuts were produced.

To boost activity, the production, distribution and planting of 6,674,660 cashew tree seedlings is planned this year, with an investment of 90 million meticais (€1.2 million), as well as “chemically treating 9,270,000 cashew trees against pests and diseases”.

Income from Mozambican cashew nut exports had already grown by 71% in 2024, to a record US$98.2 million (€83.7 million), according to data from a statistical report by the Bank of Mozambique detailing exports.

In 2023, these exports had grown to $57.3 million (€48.9 million), and the previous year to $51.7 million (€44.1 million), while in 2021 they represented just $30 million (€25.6 million).

According to the 2024 budget execution report from the Ministry of Finance, last year around 4.8 million cashew seedlings were produced and around 4.4 million were distributed, still 8% and 5% less than the previous year, respectively.

“The seedlings distributed covered around 65,303 producing families, of which 16,175 are headed by women, having been planted in an area of around 87,056 hectares with a survival rate of 89%,” the document reads.

Source: Lusa