Tanzania: Cashew Nut Farmers Start Receiving Money

CASHEW NUT farmers in the country have started receiving their money from cashews they sold on credit since October last year.

Farmers' payment has been made possible after the government extended a guarantee through Bank of Tanzania (BOT) to various cooperative Societies, which owed farmers some 54bn/-.

The Mtwara Regional Cooperative Advisor Mr John Henjewele told the 'Daily News' from Mtwara on tuesday that payments started last Friday through NMB Bank Ltd. "The bank started to release funds since last Friday and farmers are now happy after waiting for a long time," Mr Henjewele said.

He said it may take some few weeks for the exercise to be completed because 54bn/- was a huge amount to disburse. The government announced last month that it would guarantee the banks to pay farmers through Export Guarantee scheme of BOT after some 85,000 tonnes of cashew nuts failed to fetch market, leaving farmers in frantic condition.

Under Warehouse Receipt System some farmers were paid 70 per cent of the value of their cashew nut they submitted at cooperatives and others were not paid a single cent. One kilogramme of the crop was sold at 1200/-. According to Cashew nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) data cooperatives that owed farmers include Tunduru Agricultural Marketing Co-operative Union (TAMCU) 3.1bn/-, Ilulu of Lindi 11.6bn/- and Masasi Mtwara Co-operative Union (MAMCU) 19bn/-.

Others are Tandahimba - Newala Co-operative Union (TANECU) 24.5bn/-, Coast Region Co-operative Union (CORECU) 4bn/-, Dare es Salaam Region Co-operative Union (DARECU) 5.1m/- and TANGA 2.3bn/-. Tanzania registered bumper harvest of 157,000 tonnes of cashew nut this season, exceeding the 1974 record of 145,000 tonnes.

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Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201205020097.html