Over 17,000 tonnes of cashews harvested in Coast Region

Kibaha. Over 17,000 tonnes of cashews have been collected so far in Coast Region as the crop buying season is expected to start on November 26, this year.

Coast regional commissioner Evarist Ndikilo revealed this while briefing journalists shortly after he had visited Terra Cashew Processing Tanzania at Tanita in Kibaha District, Coast Region.

He mentioned Mkuranga as the leading district in producing cashews with collected 6,700 tonnes of the crop followed by Kibiti with 6,600 tonnes and Rufiji with 2,900 tonnes.

According to Mr Ndikilo, the other councils with collected cashews include Kisarawe (390,000 kilos), Kibaha Mji (354,318 kilos), Kibaha (361,205 kilos), Chalinze (86,719 kilos), Bagamoyo (90,724 kilos) and Mafia (108,000 kilos).

"The cashews have been stored in warehouses as in every council we have informed farmers that starting next Monday the government will officially start buying cashews at Sh3,300 per kilo. So, I would advise the farmers to spend their money on development matters and not otherwise," said Mr Ndikilo.

One of the leaders of  Terra Cashew Processing Tanzania, Mr Leonardo Denti, said although their firm was still in its infancy in terms of performance, it was capable of processing 10,000 kilos of cashews per day.

However, Mr Denti said they would be happy if the government would be satisfied to award them with a tender of processing cashews.