Mozambique breaks record in meat production with 181,792 tonnes in 2023
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Mozambique intends to regain its status as one of the world’s largest producers of cashew nuts over the next three years, but economists say it will be necessary to improve aspects of the agricultural sector.
In the 1970s, Mozambique was the world’s largest producer of cashew nuts, reaching 200,000 tons of this yield, but since the 1980s, production has declined dramatically. There were years in which production did not reach 80,000 tons.
Some sectors, VOA reports, blamed the World Bank for this fall, for having banned the export of unprocessed cashew nut to the Asian market.
However, in recent years, the production of cashew nuts has been showing signs of recovery, although the present harvest was only about 125,000 of the 149,000 tons foreseen.
Last year, Mozambique produced 140,000 tons, the largest amount in the last 30 years.
Ilidio Bande, director of the Cashew Development Institute, believes that this is a sign of recovery in the sector, saying he is convinced that “in the next three years, we will reach the levels we reached in the 1970s, about 200,000tons”.
He said that “we are witnessing a great bustle of new plantations, which is the secret of everything, because the cashew trees that produced well in the 70s no longer do so”.
Some economists say, however, that the World Bank impositions have had a negative impact on the cashew sector, but at the moment it is necessary to re-evaluate agrarian policies so that this and other sectors can actually recover.
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