Mozambique Cashew Reforms Revisited
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and felt entitled to continued protection. Urban factory owners and workers had greater political power and influence than producers, the producers, despite numbering over 1 million households, were relatively disorganized and dispersed throughout the country’s rural areas.9 In 1996–97, the export tax was reduced to 14 percent, instead of the 12 percent agreed upon, and then frozen at 14 percent until 1999, when it was raised to 18 percent. The cashew export tax of 18 percent has been maintained since, effectively taxing poor farmers and giving a subsidy of more than 25 percent to processors, compared to their competitors in India and Vietnam.10 Figure 6.1 shows the exports of raw cashew and the raw cashew equivalent of processed cashew kernels, and the real producer prices. Given the problems associated with production numbers, exports are treated as officially marketed output (annex 6.2). For the remainder of this chapter, export estimates will be used as equivalent to marketed production and for production itself. In 1990 and 1991, most exports comprised processed cashews as a result of the ban against exporting raw cashews. An increase occurred in exports (production) after the civil war ended in 1992, to above 30,000 tons; this figure gradually increased almost to 50,000 tons in
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60
year raw cashew exports producer price Sources: COMTRADE 2010; INCAJU.
processed cashew exports
real meticias/kg
‘000 tons
Figure 6.1 Cashew Exports from Mozambique