Cashew nut central to Guinea-Bissau economy: a blessing or a curse?

April 7, 2016 (Menu / News / Media / Radio) - April usually marks the beginning of the harvest and marketing of cashew nuts that since 1976 has become the largest export product for Guinea-Bissau, taking especially in recent years, a very significant weight in the economy.

11 Apr 2016

Cashew nut central to Guinea-Bissau economy: a blessing or a curse?

Currently, 180,000 of the 200,000 tons produced in 2011 were exported, bringing the State an income of 156 million euros. About 85 percent of the population depends on cashew nuts, and it is no coincidence that cashew farms are destroying many natural forests in the country, and give rise to a monoculture whose production and marketing does not satisfy the farmers although the African cashew Alliance which groups countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, among others, ranks Guinea-Bissau as the third producer in the continent after Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

For several years now experts from the country's agricultural sector have been warning about the need for an urgent reordering of cashew plantations, as every year, between 30 and 80 thousand hectares of forests are destroyed. Today, the reality on the ground shows the progress of cashew farms thus increasing the pressure on natural forests.

The cashew monoculture also brings food safety problems. Elber Nosolini, WFP Program Assistant, recalls that in the past the country used to produce and export peanuts, coconuts, rubber and cotton among others.

The income from the sale of cashew nuts contributes significantly to the State Budget. The reports of the International Monetary Fund show that the outcome of the campaign impacts negatively or positively the GDP of Guinea-Bissau.

 

According to the Minister of Economy and Finance, "The cashew campaign is the main source of income of ours farmers and the main export commodity of Guinea-Bissau, and about 90 percent of our exports are cashew nuts tremendously weighting in our GDP."

"In 2015 about 175,000 tons of cashew were exported and this year, we expect to export 180 000 tons, probably a little more given the good prospects for this year's campaign," Geraldo Martins explained.

Due to the importance of cashew to the national economy the government in its development strategy focuses on the work of its entire chain, since its production, marketing to export.

"If all the annual production was transformed locally before export of the finished product, certainly the gain would be much more important, because it would bring added value to the product, given that the price charged for a kilo of raw nuts would not be the same ," he added. 

The main obstacles to the transformation of cashew are the acquisition of raw materials for processing, and the actual price of the raw material, said Josué Gomes de Almeida, Coordinator of the Rehabilitation of Private Sector and Support to Agro-industrial Development Project, funded by the World Bank.

 "When the market is good in terms of the price paid to producers, all transformers cry, and when the price is bad for producers, everyone talks about local transformation," said Jose Gomes de Almeida, stressing the need for this contradiction to be resolved since "in government policy, the fight against poverty must be reflected in rural world where cashew is produced."

Rui Fonseca, Assistant FAO Programs, recalled that the diversification of agricultural production in the country "is important" and that why his agency will launch "a program in partnership with the European Union at the end of April, for cashew improved production quality and also for the development of horticulture.”