By STAFF REPORTER
TO help improve investment into Tanzania’s cashew processing sector, the Cashew Board of Tanzania (CBT) is organising the Tanzania International Cashew Conference (TICC).
Scheduled to take place from October 11 to 13 at the Dar es Salaam’s Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, the three-day forum is expected to attract more than 500 cashewnut stakeholders from at least 33 countries across the world.
Alfred Francis, is the CBT’s Director General, and he told this publication that the countries to attend the conference include Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast, Guinea –Bissau, Ghana, Commoro, Nigeria, as well as some European countries.
“We have decided to organise the key conference which will be graced by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to help advertise to the world the numerous potential opportunities that the country’s cashew sector has to offer,” he unveiled.
And he added that, among others, the conference targets to attract potential global investors to chip in and invest into diverse opportunities available in the country’s cashew sector, ranging from cashew plantations to processing plants.
“Most of the cashew produced in Tanzania and marketed to the world market, at least 98 percent, are at the first grade but the problem is we sell them raw, prompting a low price” Francis expressed.
He said the CBT in cooperation with the ministry of agriculture was working round the clock to put in place a series of initiatives to heighten cashew processing and value addition within the country in order to allow the country’s cashew to enjoy a wider market in the world market.
“Through selling raw cashew, we’re minimizing our market scope as we are being compelled to only sell to India and Vietnam, but if processing, we can sell our cashew into many more countries including USA, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa,” he unveiled.
Francis further detailed that the envisaged conference will feature a number of presentations from the high-profile cashewnut experts from across the world.
The topics to be presented include, value addition in cashewnut, incentives and policies in investing into Tanzania’s cashew sector as well as cashew quality control and markets.
“The prime focus is to attract a number of foreign and local investors in the sector in order to improve production of cashew in Tanzania while ensuring what is being produced sail in the same boat with the set standards in the international cashew market,” he observed.
He communicated that CBT was expecting to be staging the Tanzania International Cashew Conference (TICC) after each two years in order to ensure the sector is being improved to the desired extent.
“During the three-days conference, we are planning to organise a special tour of the Zanzibar’s archipelago as part to cement President Samia’s robust initiative to promote the tourism sector in Tanzania,” he unveiled.
The Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Bashe unveiled that the parent ministry was considering setting aside a total of 10bn/- in the next fiscal year to help facilitate a robust strategy for the processing of all cashew nuts that are produced by the farmers across the country.
Among others, the useful strategy expects to see establishment of a number of cashew nuts processing factories in different regions within the country with an eye to discourage a negative trend of exporting the economic cash crops in raw, with effect from 2025/2026 growing season.
Comments
Post a Comment