GUINEA-BISSAU: Locust damage to cashew nut crop appears minimal

BISSAU, 18 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Locust damage to Guinea-Bissau's vital cashew nut crop in recent months appears to have been minimal. The Ministry of Trade has forecast a harvest of 100,000 to 105,000 tonnes of raw nuts this year, slightly more than in 2004.

The forecast was issued at the weekend at the start of the new cashew nut marketing season.

Cashew nuts are the main export of this former Portuguese colony in West Africa and the main source of cash income for its peasant farmers.

The government had earlier expressed fears that an invasion of locust swarms from neighbouring Senegal in December and January might result in damage to Guinea-Bissau's cashew nut trees which were then in flower.

Fixing the minimum price for raw cashew nuts at 250 CFA francs (50 US cents) per kilo, unchanged from last year, the government insisted that all nuts sold had to be paid for in cash.

Last year, many farmers bartered their cashew nuts for rice with traders from Senegal.

As a result only 93,000 tonnes of cashew nuts were exported directly by Guinea-Bissau, generating an inflow of foreign exchange of US $65 million.

The Ministry of Trade said a further 7,000 tonnes, which had been bartered for rice, the staple food of Guinea-Bissau, were exported to the world market via Senegal.

Most of Guinea-Bissau's cashew nuts are sold raw to India for processing and re-export. Former trade minister Issufo Sanha, said the country could earn an additional $20 million in added value from cashew nuts each year by setting up its own processing plant.

Meanwhile, the government has announced plans to use dried waste of the cashew fruit to produce electricity in a series of small thermal power stations to be set up around the country. The first of these is due to be built in Bolama, an island community 40 km south of the capital Bissau, later this year.

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