Dar es Salaam — Tanzanian cashew nut processors must now up their processing capacity and standards as an American firm has announced that it would buy all the processed and certified cashews from Tanzania.
American Company, World Holdings International (WHI), said on Monday that it has secured a firm that would buy the product from Tanzania.
WHI CEO Lloyd Ward named the company that will be buying the product from Tanzania to be JF Braun & Sons.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Monday, Mr Ward described JF Braun & Sons as a leading supplier of dried fruits and nuts in the American market.
Mr Ward said with its sister companies, the Gellert Global Group, JF Braun imports and sells over $1 billion of food products to Americans annually.
“Our first containers are scheduled to leave Dar es Salaam for America before the end of this calendar year,” he told a meeting that brought together cashewnut stakeholders.
Mr Ward said if other factors were to remain constant, the investor would buy a kilo of processed cashew nuts at about $6.5 (about Sh14,950), which is above the global market price of $5.60 (about Sh12, 880).
During the last cashew nut marketing season, the price of a kilo of standard raw cashews hovered between Sh1,900 and Sh2,700.
WHI says the existing cashew nut global supply chain produces over $1.2 billion (Sh2.8 trillion) of economic value (value of raw cashew nuts exported annually). This is above the $250 million (Sh575 billion) in average annual earnings that Tanzania realizes annually.
Ward Holdings Tanzania Ltd (WHT) president Godfrey Simbeye said the company was keen to develop the entrepreneurial spirit clearly evident among the existing processors in Tanzania.
The company, which is a subsidiary of WHI, has launched the programme to expand both existing processors capacity and to develop the human capital needed to successfully operate those facilities as certified plants.
“It is really exciting to think about the economic benefits of MDI [market driven industrialization] when linked to the growth of the cashew crop and the expansion of processing capacity in Tanzania,” stressed Mr Simbeye.
Going by the Tanzania Cashew nut Board (TCB), the government plans to increase the cashew harvest from an average of 300,000 metric tonnes per annum to 700,000 metric tonnes and process all of the crop by 2025/26 financial year.
WHI chief operating officer Scott Karren said the growth of the national cashew nut harvest and MDI will create a vast economic growth for the benefit of farmers, processors and Tanzania’s economy at large.
“The United States is a huge market opportunity for Tanzanian cashew nut farmers and processors,” he stressed.
The US, according to him, consumes over 150,000 metric tonnes of processed cashews each year.
Agricultural Non State Actors Forum (Ansaf) executive director Audax Rukonge said the new move by the American investor presents an opportunity for stakeholders to embark on initiatives geared to bolstering the processing of cashews.
Currently, Mr Rukonge said, Tanzania was processing only 10 percent of its total produce.
He said only 30,000 tonnes out of an average of 300,000 tonnes were being processed annually.
“We have a huge potential which is yet to be tapped. What processors are processing is far below compared to their installed capacity of 98,000 tonnes,” noted Mr Rukonge.
He said with increased processing, more jobs would be guaranteed to Tanzanians, while revenue in the form of tax would multiply and also the flow of foreign exchange would improve.
Mr Rukonge expounded that some 60,000 jobs were being lost annually due to exportation of raw cashew nuts.
Tanzania Association of Cashew Nuts Processors (TACP) chairman Bahati Mayoma said it was high time financial institutions grabbed the opportunity by financing cashew nuts processors.
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