Dar es Salaam — Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has met leaders from cashew nut growing regions on Friday October 26, 2018 to discuss the unfolding controversy over the crop's pricing.
Cashew nut farmers have boycotted selling their harvests at auctions citing low prices.
Mr Majaliwa arrived in Lindi this morning and held the meeting with regional commissioners of Lindi, Mtwara, Pwani and Ruvuma, chairs of the cooperative unions and officials of the Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) to discuss the price stalemate and other issues affecting the produce trading.
"The PM is meeting these leaders to discuss cashew nut prices," the Prime Minister's office said.
At least three cashew auctions have been boycotted by farmers so far due to prices which they said did not satisfy their expectation. The same farmers enjoyed record high prices of up to Sh4000 a kilo but buyers are offering a maximum of Sh2700 a kilo this season.
The new buying season started early this month but no trading has taken place due to the boycott, leading to fear that the disruption would affect the country's forex earnings.
International prices for cashews have dropped by nearly half since March after consumers in the United States and Saudi Arabia objected to high prices, according to Reuters.
Farmers in Ivory Coast - the world's top cashew nut producer with output of 770,000 tonnes expected this year - were reported last month to have been struggling to sell their yields, with an estimated 150,000 tonnes of stockpiles of bags lying around in warehouses.
Already deputy Miinister for Agriculture, Mr Omary Mgumba said that the government would engage Tanzania ambassadors in Vietnam and India to survey the market in those countries and bring the findings to determine the way forward locally.
