O sector do caju em Nampula implicações da qualidade na comercialização

Abstract

The cashew sector is one of the most important in the Mozambican economy: i) it comprises around one million producers, most of them peasants and small producers who use cashew and nuts as a source of income and food security; ii) it is one of the biggest sources of foreign exchange for the country through exports, raw or processed nuts (92% of the nuts produced in Mozambique are processed abroad); iii) it has already employed more than 11,000 workers, the majority of whom are currently unemployed; iv) it can be a good starting point for the promotion of industrial and intersectoral links due to the interests and agents that the sector mobilizes and; iv) raises some aspects in the coordination and coherence of sectoral policies and strategies in agro-industries in Mozambique. During colonial domination, the cashew economy was based on the exploitation and imposition of culture on the peasant, favoring Portuguese industrial and commercial capital. After independence, the quantity and quality of cashew nuts began to decline due to several adverse factors, among them, i) the peasant family's lack of interest in culture, which is no longer mandatory, and ii) the absence of policy and strategy clear to the sector. The coercive policies imposed by the colonial government to guarantee the quality of the nut were inadequate to the new political and economic context in Mozambique after independence. The whole quality control system collapsed because it did not make much sense to demand quality until there was an investment in the sector, plus a lack of raw materials.(TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)