The Mozambican Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Celso Correia, has guaranteed that phytosanitary certificates for the export of pigeonpea have now been issued again, a document that hasn’t been issued for around three months due to the high level of forgery.
According to the government official, all the certificates are issued at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER) and there are no longer any blocks to exporting to India. “We don’t want companies to continue issuing fake certificates, because we run the risk of being banned from international markets.”
“Traders can export their production, and we are working to unblock any barriers that may arise. We therefore see no reason for activities to be paralyzed,” he explained.
On Thursday, November 9, during the Economic Briefing, the president of the Confederation of Economic Associations (CTA) of Mozambique, Agostinho Vuma, asked for the intervention of the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, to liberalize the export of pigeon peas, highlighting the many constraints faced in the process of selling the product, especially to India.
“The constraints faced in agricultural marketing range from logistical issues to access to phytosanitary certificates, as well as the issue of managing export quotas. There are records of 15,000 tons of cowpeas destined for India being held up in the country due to customs problems,” he revealed.
Recently, the Indian press indicated that in recent days the price of pigeon peas has risen by 10% in the country, precisely because of the difficulties in importing from Mozambique.
