November 20, 2018 — Tanzania’s cashew sector has been thrown into turmoil after the government moved to seize produce from traders who cannot show proof that they are farmers.
The verification drive is aimed at removing middlemen who have long dominated the cashew trade. In the southern regions of Mtwara and Lindi, where the army was deployed to collect cashews bought by the government, authorities have already confiscated thousands of tonnes of nuts.
Cooperatives say they could be left with heavy debts after financing farmers to prepare land and buy inputs, only for the state to shift to direct payment for produce. They argue that many of the cashews now being bought by the government had already been sold to traders at prices below the Tanzania Agricultural Bank’s rate of Tsh3,300 ($1.4) per kilogramme.
On Monday, Mtwara Regional Commissioner Geldius Bykanywa said the government would only pay farmers after verification. “We normally assess the amount supposed to be paid to the farmer in relation to the size of their farms,” he told reporters. “If we find out that there is a discrepancy, we cancel the payment.”
Bykanywa said farmers were vulnerable to traders who advance loans and recover the money through harvests. “The traders take advantage to negotiate with the vulnerable growers who cannot afford to buy agricultural inputs, in which the growers are conditioned to equally share the sales,” he said. He added that some middlemen had been buying produce before harvest.
He also accused cooperative union executives of seeking payments for “ghost farmers.” So far, the government has bought about 300 tonnes of cashew nuts, according to the Mtwara region chief.
