By Ange Aboa
ABIDJAN, July 5 (Reuters) – Cashew nut processors in Ivory Coast have requested for presidency help and safety from competitors coming from deeper-pocketed Asian exporters that they are saying are driving them in direction of chapter, in line with a letter seen by Reuters.
The Ivory Coast Cashew Trade Group (GTCI), which represents 15 cashew processors, stated in a letter to the sector regulator on June 23 the businesses have solely bought round 37,000 tonnes this season, or round 15% of their capability.
It attributed this to Asian exporters’ means to supply greater costs to farmers due to their scale, decrease value of manufacturing and entry to state help. It didn’t title particular corporations.
Asian exporters, many in Vietnam and India, export about 80% of Ivory Coast’s roughly 800,000 tonnes of annual cashew output.
The multinationals “have a digital monopoly on purchases and exports of uncooked cashew nuts, leaving a small portion to native actors who’re squeezed out of the provision chain,” the letter stated, warning that a number of corporations face chapter.
The businesses, which have an annual processing capability of round 250,000 tonnes and make use of 2,300 folks, requested the federal government to offer them unique rights to buy the primary two weeks of the season’s harvest as a way to entry the highest quality uncooked nuts.
In addition they requested the regulator to assist home corporations export premium high quality almonds, that are extremely prized in Western markets, and to make accessible extra monetary help introduced for exporters in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ivory Coast’s cashew sector regulator declined to remark.
Alex Guettia, a member of an trade group that represents 40 corporations that purchase nuts for Asian exporters together with Vietnam’s T&T Group, acknowledged the businesses have benefited from state help throughout the pandemic however emphasised their success securing outdoors funding.
“We do not understand how the (home) processors work, but when they cannot purchase the cashew, it isn’t due to us,” Guettia advised Reuters. “In contrast to processors, we all know and grasp buying and selling so it is simpler for us to know the way to keep away from issues.”
GTCI president Lucman Diaby stated many home corporations are practically bankrupt or in extreme monetary issue due to the competitors from Asian exporters.
“Our Asian opponents … have a lot decrease manufacturing prices. It’s not possible compete with them,” Diaby stated.
Aboubacar Toure, the director basic of the Novarea processing agency, advised Reuters home processing was unprofitable due to the excessive value of manufacturing, together with vitality, industrial tools and upkeep.
“For every kilo processed, we lose 160 francs CFA,” he stated, urging the federal government to double sure subsidies.
($1 = 551.2500 CFA francs)
(Reporting by Ange Aboa Modifying by Bate Felix and David Evans)
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