(Ecofin Agency) - From now on, a tax of CFA30 will be applied to every kilogram of cashew exported. The information was disclosed on December 14, 2017 at the end of a Council of Ministers.

“Revenues generated by this tax will be used to finance activities that will boost value chains’ competitiveness and support cashew sector’s structuring. The tax can be amended during each campaign to take into account the sector’s performance and need to preserve its balance, the government said in a statement.

At the same time, several measures which aim to support local processors during the 2018 campaign were also revealed.

These measures include “setting aside part of the national output of raw cashew nuts for local processing” and “the implementation of a mechanism to facilitate industrial units’ access to funding to purchase the nuts”.

Côte d’Ivoire, world largest producer and exporter of cashew in 2015 (702,000 tons), plans to process its entire production by 2020.

Cashew is grown by about 250,000 households mainly based in the savannah areas in the country.

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