In Guinea-Bissau, the marketing and export of cashew nuts, the country’s most important cash crop, has begun with a benchmark price for producers of 360 CFA francs (€0.54) per kilogram.
The government had announced last week that the April-to-September commercial campaign would start on Wednesday, and that the base tax for exports of $850 (€723) per tonne.
Cashew nuts is not only Guinea-Bissau’s main export product but the engine of economic growth, with 80% of the population either directly or indirectly dependent on the industry.
Guinea-Bissau last year exported around 154,000 tonnes of cashew nuts, 20.9% less than in 2019, with almost the whole harvest going to India, according to a report by the National Cashew Agency (ANCA) that noted that export revenues thus fell €34 million.
The drop in demand for the country’s cashew nuts was a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the economic impact of coronavirus restrictions in Guinea-Bissau and worldwide.
