The President of Guinea-Bissau, Jose Mario Vaz, has halted the sale of cashews sales a few weeks into the season amid signs of the crop being smuggled out of the country via neighbouring Senegal.
Cashews make up around 80 percent of all export revenues from the small West African country which is the fifth-largest cashew exporter in the world. The country has secret cross-border sales means the historically unstable country misses out on export taxes.
“I am calling on producers to suspend the sale of cashew nuts until further notice,” Vaz said late on Monday.
He said that farmers in Guinea-Bissau were receiving around 500-600 CFA Francs ($1.00) per kilogramme while the nuts were being sold at around 1500 CFA Francs ($2.51) in southern Senegal.