3 July 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican cashew processing industry has benefited, over the last five years, from a line of credit of 50 million US dollars, opened by the government as part of a drive to facilitate access to credit for small and medium companies.
The Minister of Industry and Trade, Antonio Fernando, told reporters on Thursday that in recent years 24 small scale cashew processing plants have emerged, in part due to the credit facilities provided by the government.
Today the cashew industry, he said, directly employs about 6.700 workers, with a "very positive" impact on the cashew producing areas, notably the northern provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado.
In the late 1990s, the cashew industry collapsed, largely because of the World Bank's demand that the government should no longer protect the industry. The World Bank's interference made it impossible for the Mozambican industry to compete with those who were buying up raw nuts for export to India. Wittingly or otherwise, the World Bank supported the Indian cashew processing industry at the expense of the Mozambican one.
The result was that all 14 large scale, mechanized cashew factories closed. The resurgence of processing this decade is on the basis of much smaller, labour intensive units. These smaller plants have not yet equalled either the production or the employment of the defunct large factories. According to Fernando, the government, working through the National Cashew Institute, is encouraging the establishment of small processing plants, with "globally competitive technologies".
In addition to the 50 million dollar line of credit for the cashew industry, other credit possibilities are available to small companies, such as the Small Industry Promotion Fund (40 million meticais - equivalent to 1.5 million dollars), and the Economic Recovery Support Fund (FARE). The latter has 21 million meticais available, essentially for the reconstruction of rural shops.
Fernando said that a new fund, of over 100 million meticais, was now available to help farmers buy agricultural equipment.
"These funds are not sufficient", he said, "but they express the government's efforts to place financial resources at the service of entrepreneurs".
The government was also trying to revive rural trade by selling off the ruins of shops that are still state owned. "These shops are being sold for the price of two goats, since the shops cost between 1,500 and 3,500 meticais each", said the Minister.
This measure was intended "to ensure that Mozambican could carry on their businesses in the rural areas", where currently trade does not take place in commercial establishments at all, but is entirely informal.
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