Renson Mwakandana
In an effort to switch from exporting raw nuts to ones with added value, a shipment of processed cashew nuts from Tanzania to the United States departed the country on Monday.
The eight-ton shipment of cashew nuts that had been prepared was sent from Dar es Salaam to New Orleans, Louisiana via the Julius Nyerere International Airport. A 20-foot container loaded with 7.5 metric tonnes of branded consumer packaged cashew nuts departed Mtwara for the US in October of this year.
Ward Holdings Tanzania Limited (WTH), a division of Ward Holdings International, a worldwide market development and investment firm located in Michigan, is the exporter.
Anthony Mavunde, Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Agriculture, sent off the cargo and expressed WTH’s support for the government’s goal of having 60% of Tanzania’s cashew nuts processed domestically by 2025.
Less than 10% of the nation’s cashew nuts are now processed; the rest are shipped unprocessed. He claimed that “If our plan succeeds, it will mean increasing new industries and creating more jobs for our youth.”
The package, according to Mr. Robert Adrian Raines of the American embassy, symbolized the expanding commercial ties between Tanzania and the US. He added that this action will improve cashew nut growers’ well-being and promote their produce.
“A historic moment of cashew nuts grown, harvested, and consumer-packaged in Tanzania being exported directly for the first time from farmers in Tanzania to the US marketplace,” said WHT President Godfrey Simbeye who graced the event.
