Sourcing season has begun for Guinea-Bissau’s cashew crop. Cashews are the country’s main product, responsible for 95 percent of exports and contributing 10 percent of GDP.
According to a report in Medafrica Times, the government will buy cashews from producers for just over 60 US cents a kilogram – the same price as last year, but down from the 65 cents set in 2021.
More than 80 percent of the population of Guinea-Bissau depends on cashew nuts as a cash crop, providing vital income in a country where many are experiencing food insecurity.
[See more: Food aid from China arrives in Guinea-Bissau at a ‘critical’ time]
In 2022, Guinea-Bissau exported around 185 thousand tonnes, with India, Vietnam and China the main importers of the Guinean cashew production, Medafrica Times says. The normal export volume is around 200,000 tonnes.
Although shipping costs haven’t been subjected to the same level of increases caused by the pandemic in other parts of Africa, observers warn that the movement of cashews “from the bushes to the hands of intermediates to the warehouses in Bissau” to their onward destinations “involves several stakeholders, procedures and supply chain bottlenecks”.
Once the wet season begins in late May, transport along roads in Guinea-Bissau becomes extremely difficult, with much of the cashew crop languishing in the country’s interior waiting to be moved to the country’s ports.
