Government will not interfere in cashew nuts buying, says Minister

Dodoma. The government said on Friday September 6, 2019 that challenges on buying Tanzania' cashew nuts will not reoccur in the next season as it plans to announce indicative prices next week.

Deputy Minister for Agriculture Mr Hussein Bashe told Parliament that the cashew market will this time be handled by farmers and buyers and the government will play its oversight and facilitative roles without interfering in the business.

Mr Bashe was responding to a supplementary question from Mr Rashid Akbar (Newala Rural-CCM) who wanted the government to announce indicative prices now.

"The Minister for Agriculture will announce the prices next week as the next season reopens. This time the business is between farmers and buyers and the government will only supervising processes," said Mr Bashe.

"What we want is to see open bids for transparency and avoid possible pre-arrangement and theft," he said.

Mr Akbar also asked the government to ensure all cashew farming inputs to be delived timely and reliably.

Mr Bashe said already 19,000 tonnes of sulphur powder were available for the 2019/20 season out of 30,000 tonnes required.

He also said 270,000 litres of liquid pesticides were already in Tanzania out of 500,000 litres needed for the whole season.