Marketing of cashew nuts: Producers in turmoil

After being forced to sell off soybeans, farmers are totally discouraged by the purchase prices of cashew nuts at this start-up period of the campaign 2023 marketing.

After waiting in vain for the government to fix the price of cashew kernels throughout March 2023, the producers resolve to sell their production to 200 francs per kilogram and 300 straightforward at best. Many of them are forced to sell to meet the debts incurred for the maintenance of the fields..

Indeed, throughout the year, plants need to be pruned, cut grass and do other work to hope for better production. Others lent the money for various needs such as care, the purchase of basic food products. Lent to microfinance agencies, this money must be repaid on time and with interest. The price at which cashew is currently trading does not allow them to generate added value and thus benefit from the fruit of their labor.

Meanwhile, rumors say that cashew is bought at more than 500 francs per kilogram in neighboring Nigeria and Togo. Attracted by these fabulous prices broken down by social networks, many producers and traders have started to try to sell their products to these countries. To avoid bleeding, firm instructions seem to have been given to customs to board any truck loaded with cashews that tries to cross national borders.

This situation is a good reminder of the adventure of soybeans during the season. 2022-2023. Here again, prices below those of neighboring countries had pissed off producers who had invested heavily in production in the hope of making a fortune.

To get the government to review its copy, a deputy, in this case Léon Dègny of the party Les Démocrates, addressed ten oral questions to the government. Among these, he wants to know if the government, its various decisions, does not seek to favor "the monopoly of the Gdiz (Glo-Djibé Special Economic Zone) in soybean marketing, cashew and shea ». If it was the case, it then amounts to saying that there is no longer any competition and that the beneficiary of the monopoly buys the fruit of the labor of the peasants for pittance.

Will the government seize the opportunity of these questions to revise the price of cashew upwards and prevent shea from suffering the same trajectory? ?

Pierre MATCHOUDO