Dar es Salaam. The cashew nut auctions whichwere slated to commence today have been pushed back for a week, with formal opening of the auctions for the 2021/2022 crop season taking place next Friday, October 8, 2021.
Reports from the Cashewnut Board of Tanzania (CBT) say the decision has been taken following delayed opening of auction warehouses, thereby affecting the flow of cashew nuts into the godowns.
“CBT has decided to reschedule its earlier timetable to set the stage for an efficient auctioning season once the curtain is raised,” said a CBT official on condition of anonymity.
However, when auctioning begins in earnest, farmers would have to wait for four days or so after an auction as their payments have to be deposited in their bank accounts.
CBT says no specific banks would be used for disbursement of farmers’ payments, as farmers are allowed to use accounts at any bank.
The CBT acting director general, Mr Francis Alfred, told The Citizen that farmers will receive their payments through accounts they have opened in any of the approved banks.
“Farmers will continue receiving payments through their mobile phones because it is the policy of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) that payment methods should be widened,” he said.
According to him, mobile phone service providers who will be involved in disbursement of payments have been so authorised by BoT.
Revealing that 52 companies have been registered to purchase cashew nuts this season, Mr Alfred said 35 of them will procure processed cashews for export through secondary auctions.
Mr Alfred also said that 17 other companies have been registered to purchase cashews for domestic processing through the primary markets under the Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (Amcos) system.
“Amcos have purchased moisture meters and electronic weighing scales for nuts counting in their respective warehouses. The quality of cashews will be determined in the initial stages before consignments are taken to warehouses,” he said - assuring farmers that the challenges that arose in the last trading season will be fully addressed this season.
Last season, cashew nuts that were considered to be of grades lower than A and B were initially accepted by Amcos. But, these were later rejected and returned to farmers at the end of the trading season - which triggered protests from the farmers.
Farm verifications
In the 2019/2020 when the government purchased all the cashew nuts at Sh3,300 per kilo after ordinary buyers offered low prices at earlier auctions, farmers who took 1,500 kilos of cashew nuts to warehouses for auctioning had to be verified to conform to the eligibility of the produce to be auctioned.
But, Mr Alfred said this season, no verification would be done, as CBT will collaborate with district and regional authorities to bar involvement of illegal cashew dealers, popular as ‘Kangomba’ in Swahili,
Primary market
According to Mr Alfred, estimates are that Raw Cashew Nuts (RCNs) processing will increase this season, compared to the 2020/2021 trading season following government’s interventions.
Challenges - including shortages of raw materials for domestic processing - will significantly decline following the new guidelines that established primary markets.
“Relationships between farmers and processing groups have significantly improved,” he said.
Government support
At the start of the 2020/2021 season, the government started preparing primary market guidelines to enable local processors to purchase RCNs directly from Amcos.
He said the system has enabled local processors to access enough raw materials at low prices, contrary to what was happenening in the past when they were forced to compete with buyers of the produce for export. Furthermore, he said improved relationships between large, medium, small and processing groups have addressed some challenges facing small processors, including a lack of reliable markets, working tools and capital.
“We have increased the ability of large factories to get raw materials by purchasing cashew nuts from groups of farmers. They have created a synergy which has solved the parties’ challenges - and complement each other,” he said.
New cashew producers
According to the CBT chief, the Dodoma, Singida, Tabora, Kigoma, Njombe, Morogoro and Katavi regions have started contributing to the country’s cashews basket.
However, the new regions can contribute only a small amount as they pass through the initial stages of cashews production, with expectations that the amounts will continue increasing as years go by.
This season Tanzania has forecasted to produce 280,000 tonnes of RCN as compared to 278,000 tonnes forecasted in the 2020/21 season during which only 206,718.88 tonnes was produced.
No comments :
Post a Comment