Maputo, Moçambique, 13 Sept – The 5th Annual Conference of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) is due to start Tuesday in Maputo attended by 250 participants who will debate the main current constraints on that agricultural sub-sector.

The conference is organised by the Association of Cashew Manufacturers (Aicaju), in partnership with non-governmental organisation USAID Agrifuturo and by the Mozambican Cashew Promotion Institute (Incaju).

Over three days, the congress will discuss current trends in the international cashew nut market, identify funding opportunities, as well as the need to add value to the nut by processing it for sale of a finished product.

Mozambique was once the world’s biggest producer of cashews when in the 1970s it produced over 250,000 tons per year, but the sector’s performance has tailed off as a result of the civil war and the liberalisation policy on exports of unprocessed cashews, which led to the few processing factories in the country to close down due to a lack of raw materials.

Mozambique currently produces around 90,000 tons of cashew nuts per year, but its domestic processing capacity is estimated at 40,000 tons, which means that at least 50,000 tons are exported without being processed. (macauhub)