Maputo: The Union of Cashew Nut and Peanut Producers of Namilato, in Mozambique’s Nampula province, has been exporting its surplus production to Europe since 2011, a deal which was carried out under the “Fair Trade” market mechanism, the association’s president said.
Cited by Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias, Carlitos Zacarias said that this was the culmination of a process that had begun in 2010 in which rural workers from the cooperative had been subjected to rigorous international audits to assess the level of execution of terms of reference to gain access to the international “fair trade” market.
The union of rural workers from Namilato is the second Mozambican organisation to benefit, following Ikuru, a company that sell agricultural products and equipment.
The “fair trade” market, which is an initiative that beings together 300 organisations from 60 countries, aims to focus on agricultural and handicraft producers from poor countries, such as Mozambique, by paying a fair price for their work, which is intended to motivate the production sector.
* For more information on the cashew sector in Mozambique, read this recent World Bank research paper.
