 |
| Cashew nut processing factory |
Determined
to revamp the country’s near collapse cashew nut industry, the government
contemplates repossessing the cashew nut factories that have closed shops
against their privatisation agreements.
According
to Minister of Industries and Trade Cyril Chami, the move seeks to stop export
of raw cashew nuts and resolve the market crisis that has engulfed the industry
this season where piles of nuts went unsold.
“The
cashew nuts factories are among the privatised firms that closed shops since
they were sold at the expenses of the nation,” Dr Chami, whose ministry
conducted a study on the said companies, told the 'Daily News'.
The
Minister, who is an economist, said currently experts are looking into ways of
repossessing the factories without putting the nation into extra costs when
terminating the sales agreements.
“Another
option, if the repossession failed, is to force them to resume production, so
as to add value on our cashew nuts,” Dr Chami said.
“The
outcome will be announced after the exercise is done.” In the just ended season, the country
produced 157,000 tonnes out of which only 72,000 tonnes were bought by traders at
warehouse prices of between 1,500/- and 2,000/-.
“High prices are to blame for the crisis… but
if the nuts were processed locally, that could be another story,” Dr Chami said
as the sideline of inauguration of new TanTrade Board of Directors.
 |
| Dr Chami |
For
instance, companies such as Olam Tanzania which operates at a full capacity of
15,000 tons per year uses more than 30bn/- to buy the crop every year at farm
gate price of 2,000/- per kilo.
But
unfortunately, all ten factories that were built by the government through a
World Bank loan of 184 million US dollars (about 285bn/-) between 1970s and
1980s are not working and have been turned into warehouses for cashew nut and
other crops.
The
Chairman of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (POAC), Mr Kabwe Zitto,
called for the government to repossess the factories and give them to serious
investors after the current ones’ violation of sale agreements.
Report
from the Cashew nut Processors Association (CPA) shows that in 2010/2011
season, four companies, Olam, Agrofocus, Export Trading Group and Micronix
Systems together processed only 18,519 tons out of 130,000 tonnes.
On
the other hand, companies which did not process a single kilo include METL,
SONEL of Mikindani, Premier Cashews, Mtwara Cashew Company (2006), Kibaha
Cashew Factory, River Valley Foods, Lindi Farmers Company and Buco Investment
Holdings.
The
CPA Secretary General, Mr Joseph Haule, told the 'Daily News’ in Mtwara that
many members of the association, among them those who bought the factories, are
capital constrained as cashew nut processing requires heavy investments.
It’s
estimated that apart from machine investments, to buy 1,000 tonnes of raw
cashew nut you need 1.5bn/-.
CPA also cited regular changes of cashew nut
supervision due to changes in ministries responsible for crop marketing which
include lack of cashew nut processing policy for the past 50 years.
Source: The Daily News,www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Abduel Elinaza
0 comments :
Post a Comment