World Holdings International (WHI) announced that JF Braun & Sons, a leading supplier of dried fruits and nuts in the American market will be buying Tanzania’s cashew nuts.
WHI CEO Lloyd Ward said the first containers are scheduled to leave Dar es Salaam for America before the end of this calendar year. If other factors were to remain constant, the investor would buy a kilo of processed cashew nuts at about US$6.5 (about Sh14,950), which is above the global market price of US $5.60 (about Sh12, 880).
During the last cashew nut marketing season, the price of a kilo of standard raw cashews hovered between Sh1,900 and Sh2,700. WHI said the existing cashew nut global supply chain produces over US$1.2 billion (Sh2.8 trillion) of economic value (value of raw cashew nuts exported annually). This is above the US$250 million (Sh575 billion) in average annual earnings that Tanzania realizes annually.
Ward Holdings Tanzania Ltd (WHT) president Godfrey Simbeye said the company was keen to develop the entrepreneurial spirit clearly evident among the existing processors in Tanzania. The company, which is a subsidiary of WHI, has launched the programme to expand both existing processors capacity and to develop the human capital needed to successfully operate those facilities as certified plants.
“It is really exciting to think about the economic benefits of MDI [market driven industrialization] when linked to the growth of the cashew crop and the expansion of processing capacity in Tanzania,” said Mr Simbeye.
Going by the Tanzania Cashew nut Board (TCB), the government plans to increase the cashew harvest from an average of 300,000 metric tonnes per annum to 700,000 metric tonnes and process all of the crop by 2025/26 financial year. WHI chief operating officer Scott Karren said the growth of the national cashew nut harvest and MDI will create a vast economic growth for the benefit of farmers, processors and Tanzania’s economy at large.
