Earnings from cashewnut exports raise by Sh134bn

The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s earnings from cashew nut exports went up by a staggering 208 per cent during the year to February 2011, bringing a ray of hope to some 500,000 Tanzanians who engage in small-scale cashew nut farming.
The country earned $133 million (about Sh199.5 billion) from cashew nut exports during the year to February 2011, up from $43.7 million (about Sh65.55 billion) during the year to February 2010, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has said, attributing the increase to improved production and better prices.
This is the first time in about four years that production of cashew nuts, which is widely grown in Mtwara, Lindi, Coast, Ruvuma and Tanga regions, increases. Production has been on the decline since 2007, with the Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives ministry attributing the decline to the ageing of cashew nut trees.
With improved production, the BoT noted in its March 2011 Monthly Economic Review that the volume of cashew nut exports went up by 106.9 per cent from 60,300 tonnes to 124,800 tonnes  
According to the BoT, a tonne of cashew nut fetched $1,065.4 during the year to February 2011, from $723.4 during the year to February 2010. Increases in production and exports of cashew nuts and tobacco helped traditional exports to maintain their upward trend in contribution to the country’s export earnings.
“The performance of traditional exports was due to bumper harvests and increase in prices of cashew nuts and tobacco,” reads a statement in the BoT report. The country earned $265.1 million (about Sh397.65 billion) from tobacco exports during the year to February 2011, from $176.5 million (about Sh264.75 billion) during the year to February 2010.
All the other traditional exports of coffee, cotton, tea and cloves suffered export volume losses during the two years under review.Coffee suffered a 22.2 per cent export volume loss whereas cotton, tea and cloves were 45.7 per cent, 32.3 per cent and 41.7 per cent respectively less than the volumes exported during the year to February 2010.  
Increased cashew nut production also bolstered the crop’s contribution to total traditional exports from 8.8 per cent during the year ending February 2010 to 20.9 per cent during the year to February 2011.In the same vein, the contribution of tobacco to traditional exports reached 41.7 per cent from 35.6 per cent while that of coffee dropped from 21.5 to 19.6 per cent as that of cotton suffered from 22.5 per cent to 11.1 per cent.
During the year to February 2011, tea contributed 5.5 per cent to total traditional exports while the contribution of cloves to total traditional exports dropped from 2.2 per cent to 1.2 per cent during the two years under review.

(Source: http://thecitizen.co.tz/business/-/10339-earnings-from-cashewnut-exports-raise-by-sh134bn)