Ziguinchor, June 29, 2020 – With cashew nut exports expected to start in the coming month, Shelter For Life International presents the main conclusions and recommendations of a online forum on the cashew market in the production zone of Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau (SeGaBi).
On June 17, as part of the regional cashew value chain project called Linking Infrastructure, Finance, and Farms to Cashews (LIFFT-Cashew), the organization held an online forum to discuss the current status of cashew marketing in SeGaBi zone, with producers, buyers, and government officials.
The goal of the forum, according to the project’s Chief of Party, Laurent Gomis, who is based in Ziguinchor, was to “develop a partnership between buyers, processors and production countries of raw cashew nut” in the SeGaBi region where the project is being implemented “to facilitate the regional integration for better production, processing, and trade of the cashew nut”.
The report provides an overall picture of the impact of COVID-19, the main challenges, and expectations of the cashew marketing campaign in the SeGaBi cashew production zone.
In general, COVID-19 is affecting the cashew marketing this year, both in SeGaBi producing countries and in buying countries such as India and Vietnam.
“The proof of this is that if we take the same period last year as a reference, we already had 19,200 tons of cashew exported from the port of Ziguinchor This year export hasn’t even started yet”, said the Head of the Trade Department in Ziguinchor (Senegal), Ousmane Ka.
According to Stephen Tang, Purchase Director of Long Son Group (Vietnam), Vietnamese factories are not working in full capacity yet. “If the factories start working in full capacity, they will need raw cashew nut and they want to buy it from Ivory Coast as the harvest is ready in the storages”, while in the case of SeGaBi, the collection has just started. Also, he said that the price in SeGaBi market ishigh in comparison with the price in Vietnam and Cambodia.
In Guinea-Bissau, the government set the basic price for cashew at 375 francs CFA. Aureliano Gomes, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, explained that ”the government has already authorized the flow of cashew nuts from the regions to Bissau, in addition the air corridor is open, under presentation of a COVID-19 negative test at the entrance”.
Besides COVID-19, rain is also impacting the cashew sector in West Africa, as explained by Aminata Kone, Board Member of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA). Some countries are experiencing a loss in chestnut quality. In this context, she said that “some measures need to be taken to ensure that producers benefit from capacity building to improve product quality”, and governments should also review the policies in the sector.
Meanwhile, both producers and buyers are looking forward to the start of exports in the three countries, which should in principle be facilitated by the government in the coming weeks.
The online forum brought together 100 participants from the SeGaBi region and around the world, including producers, processors, buyers, and government officials. This conference was made possible with support from the US Department of Agriculture, CashewInfo.com, Long Son Group, and ACA.
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About Shelter For Life International
Shelter for Life International (SFL) is an international faith-based relief and development Organization based in Minnesota, United States of America. SFL has over 30 years of experience and extensive history in reconstruction of physical infrastructure, agriculture, development, food security and application of micro credit.
About LIFFT-Cashew
Linking Infrastructure, Finance, and Farms To Cashew (LIFFT-Cashew) is a six-year United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded Food for Progress Program (FFPr) program implemented by SFL and Connexus Corporation in the SeGaBi region. The program proposes to develop value chain linkages necessary to support an integrated regional trade network for the cashew value chain and enhancing the production, processing, and trade of cashews in local and international markets.The LIFFT-Cashew project has its main office in Senegal (Ziguinchor) and two sub-offices in The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau.
For more information and questions, please contact:
Mrs. Charlotte Alvarenga Alves, Regional PR Communications Officer, E-mail: Charlotte@shelter.org, mobile: 00245 95 546 22 27
| See also: https://www.shelter.org/sen-p1 | https://www.facebook.com/LIFFTCashewSFL/ |