Export Trading Group, an agricultural conglomerate registered in Mauritius and owned by the Patel family, is making moves on Mozambique’s cashew nuts, up for grabs since the departure of agrifood giant Olam.
Ever since the Indian-Singaporean agrifood business Olam, which operated most of Mozambique’s cashew nut production, abruptly left the country in early February, Export Trading Group (ETG) has been making moves to take a bite out the country’s cashew market.
To this end, ETG chairman Mahesh Patel recently sent his South African logistics manager Rajeev Saxena to Maputo to join Mozambique manager Shrikanth Naik’s team. Based in Nampula but present throughout the country, ETG’s Mozambican branch is having to overhaul its entire logistics chain.
Mahesh Patel, who is based in Dar es Salaam although ETG’s headquarters are in Mauritius, intends to invest heavily in the company’s cashew processing plants. The company owns two – one in in Nampula and one in Chiure – through its subsidiary Korosho, whose share capital Mahesh Patel has increased tenfold. Its director, Tristan Guillermo Machado, is now in charge of processing the cashew production that Olam lost interest in.
Olam’s departure was timely for Mahesh Patel, whose operations are only partly self-funded. On 26 April, ETG obtained a $100m loan from British development agency CDC Group. While this sum is supposed to benefit all of the group’s Asian and African agrifood activities, which inlude cocoa beans in West Africa, a significant portion should be allocated to the development of its Mozambican activities.
