COTONOU, March 7 (Xinhua) -- The price of per kilogram of cashew nuts has increased to 500 CFA Francs (about 0.817 U.S. dollars) when the marketing year 2016-2017 of the product opens in Benin.
"By setting the price per kilogram at 500 CFA Francs for the marketing year 2016-2017, against 300 CFA Francs (0.49 dollars) the previous year, Benin government aims at encouraging producers to engage in this sector," Lazard Sehoueto, minister of industry, trade and small and medium-sized enterprises told Xinhua here in the economic capital Cotonou.
The decision is to enable "the increase of the annual production to 300,000 tons in average within five years" from the current production volume of 120,000 tons in 2016.
Besides establishing favorable conditions for production, Benin authorities also considered upgrading process facility to enable domestic agri-food processing to complete at least half of the production.
Figures from Benin's Ministry of Agriculture show that cashew nuts rank second export crops after cotton in the country.
Gross cashew nuts exportation to international markets has considerably increased over the past few years, up from 69,357 tons in 2006 to over 90,000 tons in 2015.
