Maputo, June 27, 2025 (Lusa) - Cashew nut sales in Mozambique reached 195,400 tonnes in the last season, approaching the record set in the 1970s, when the country was one of the world’s largest producers, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries, cashew nut production in Mozambique reached more than 200,000 tonnes per year 50 years ago, during the colonial period, with sales approaching this historic record in the most recent season, 2024/2025.
Until the mid-1970s, Mozambique was the world’s second-largest cashew producer (210,000 tonnes processed in 1973), with India, which at the time, and still today, bought a large part of this production, leading the ranking.
After Mozambique’s independence on 25 June 1975, production fell to less than 10%, to around 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes per year, but has been growing annually, according to official data.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the value chain in Mozambique for this product “has around 1,047,000 families, 69 companies and 7,287 workers throughout the country” and in the province of Maputo alone, this activity involves 32,168 families, making it “the main centre of consumption, creating countless business opportunities.
“In these 50 years of independence, the cashew value chain has been an inexhaustible source of opportunities for creating jobs, with cashews and macadamias being cash crops that contribute strongly to the socioeconomic development of communities, and they benefit from various challenges arising from climate change,” the ministry said.
Mozambique’s government estimates that cashew nut production, one of the country’s main cash crops, will increase by 23% this year to 218,900 tonnes, with the area under cultivation also skyrocketing.
Government data indicate that the production area is expected to grow by 26% in the current agricultural season to 64,000 hectares nationwide, compared to 50,600 hectares in the previous season, when farmers produced 177,650 tonnes of cashew nuts.
To boost activity, the authorities plan to produce, distribute and plant 6,674,660 cashew seedlings this year, with an investment of 90 million meticais (€1.2 million), as well as “the chemical treatment of 9,270,000 cashew trees against pests and diseases”.
Revenue from Mozambican cashew nut exports increased by 71% in 2024 to a record $98.2 million (€83.7 million), according to data from a statistical report by the Bank of Mozambique, which details exports.
In 2023, these exports had grown to $57.3 million (€48.9 million), up from $51.7 million (€44.1 million) in the previous year and $30 million (€25.6 million) in 2021.
According to the Ministry of Finance’s 2024 budget implementation report, last year the government produced around 4.8 million cashew seedlings and distributed around 4.4 million, representing an 8% and 5% increase, respectively.
“We distributed seedlings to around 65,303 producer families, of which 16,175 are headed by women, and we planted them in an area of around 87,056 hectares, achieving a survival rate of 89%,” the document said.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
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