Kenya sees cashew nuts as goldmine; plans to prohibit raw cashew exports

The Kenyan government plans to bring about a regulation on the exportation of raw cashew nuts in order to encourage the progress of local industries and processing factories as well as for the purpose of creating jobs.

For the past several years, the exportation of unprocessed nuts had caused the destabilization of local production and processing, William Ruto, the Agriculture Minister, said.

“This is an industry that used to employ 5,000 Kenyans. Today all those jobs have been lost because we allowed the export of raw nuts. It is against public interest to export unprocessed nuts and that’s why we are seriously considering regulating the exportation of nuts in such a state,” he added.

He did not give a clarification on exactly how this is going to be done; however, it can be safely believed that sale of raw nuts will take place only when the requirement comes up.

Last year, the export of raw cashew nuts had been put under a ban by the government; however, according to the farmers, this was not a sensible move, as they pointed out that the lack of adequate processing capacity in the country would prove that the move, after all, produced no impact.

This was after the downfall of the Kilifi Cashew Nuts Processing Factory (at present the factory has just 20 staff, down from the earlier 3,000) in the early 1990s and the sale that followed to a private company in vague circumstances. This led to a situation where the farmers did not have access to a structured market to sell their produce and, hence, they had to turn to middlemen.

Kenya has about two million cashew nuts trees, and the country’s overall cashew nut production touches a volume of 10,000 Metric Tonnes (MT). Yet, 50 percent of these nuts are marketed in their raw form and only about six percent undergoes local processing.

Ruto, however, reiterated that the government is committed to bringing about a sea change in the nuts industry which has immense potential. The industry is a virtual goldmine waiting to be tapped in that it is capable of producing 120,000 Metric Tonnes of cashew nuts and thus contributing Sh3 billion to the country’s treasury every year. Kenya’s cashew production industry consists of approximately 60,000 farmers, and they are at present getting about Sh260 million in a year from the plantations of the cash crop on 30,000 hectares of land.

For this purpose, the Minister announced that a taskforce consisting of five members will be set up in order to incorporate the views and advices of the stakeholders on the way ahead.


Source: foodbizdaily.com

Publication date: 4/16/2009