Dar es Salaam. Thousands of tonnes of cashew nuts, worth billions of shillings, have not yet been verified, two days before the government’s deadline for cashew nut verification and payments ends. The Minister for Agriculture Japhet Hasunga told the Parliament in Dodoma on Saturday, last week, that the government through the Cereals and Other Produce Board of Tanzania (CPB) has verified cashews worth Sh442.9 billion and payments made to the produce worth Sh424.8 billion.
Speaking to cashew nut stakeholders in Mtwara on January 27, 2019, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa ordered that verification and payment exercises should be concluded by February 5, this year.
But speaking during a video conference with regional commissioners of cashews growing regions and the managing director of the TADB, Japhet Justine on January 16, 2019, Mr Majaliwa estimated that the country would produce 246,000 tonnes of cashews during the 2018/19 season.
If the figures are to be put in the right perspective, then one would argue that going by the price of Sh3,300 per kilogram of cashewnuts, then the Sh442.9 billion is equivalent to 134,212.12 tonnes.
This suggests that at least 111,787.88 tonnes of the product, worth Sh368.9 billion, had not yet been verified.
When reached for clarifications yesterday, Mr Hasunga said he would issue fresh statistics on the trend of cashew nut sales in the Parliament today (Monday, January 04, 2019).
“I will be responding to a question on cashew nut in Parliament tomorrow and that is when I will issue new data on sale, verification and payments,” he said. But, The Citizen is aware that the government was yet to decide on thousands of tonnes of cashew from farmers who had failed to show to farms at which the crop had been harvested after sending for sale over 1500 kilo of the merchandise.
However, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Mr Omar Mgumba told Mr Majaliwa during the stakeholder’s meeting in Mtwara that until Friday, January 25, 2019, at least Sh792 billion had been allocated and that Sh416 billion had already been paid to cashew farmers. According to him, verification for cashews grown in the leading area, Tandahimba at least 37,000 tonnes has reached 96 per cent. He said almost 83 per cent of all claims in Mtwara had been settled while 84 per cent in Lindi and 73 per cent of claims in Ruvuma have been paid. In Coast region, only 13 per cent was paid. In another development, cashew farmers in Mkuranga District in Coast Region, Mr Selemani Mwalimu of Kilimahewa Village and Mr Mgeni Said of Lupondo Village complained that the amount received after selling their cashew were small when compared to Sh3,300 per kilo announced by President Magufuli. “I hesitated to receive the payment from an agent after selling 230 kilogrammes of cashews before changing the decision later. The president should intervene on the matter,” said Mr Mwalimu.
