DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Cashew nuts processing industries in Tanzania can process only 50,000 tonnes of the nuts annually, an official told parliament on Friday.
Stella Manyanya, the Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, said Tanzania has a total of 34 cashew nut processing factories with an installed capacity of processing 73,010 tonnes annually but not all were operating.
She told the House in the capital Dodoma that there were 18 large and medium-sized factories but only 13 were operating.
Manyanya added that the country has 16 other small factories for processing cashew nuts but only nine of them were active.
"The government has convinced cashew nuts traders to build processing plants and so far three large-scale raw cashew traders have expressed willingness to do so," said the official.
Manyanya made the remarks when she answered a question asked by Abdallah Chikota, a Member of Parliament for Nanyamba constituency, who wanted the government to explain strategies it was taking to enhance local processing of the traditional cash crop.
Chikota appealed to the government to remove some taxes as a way of attracting investors in cashew nuts processing factories.
Tanzania's production of cashew nuts ranges from 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes annually and a large part of the crop is exported in raw form.
