July 09, 2019
Good news for the actors of the cashew nuts in Ivory Coast. The Ivorian government adopted in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, July 03, 2019, an ordinance giving new tax incentives to actors in the cashew processing segment. This measure will boost the local processing of cashew nuts. This Ivory Coast school would be timely for Benin, one of the major cashew producing countries.
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In Côte d'Ivoire, new tax incentives will soon be granted to actors in the cashew processing sector. Economic operators in the sector will be exempted from customs duties and Value Added Tax (VAT) on the purchase of equipment and spare parts, made within the framework of their investments, over 5 years. Thus, decided the Ivorian government last week.
According to the point of the Council of Ministers, over the same period of five years, actors will also benefit from "the granting of tax credit to companies, business development, by the increase or modernization existing installations " .
These provisions are part of the authorities' objective of achieving a 50% transformation of the cashew nut crop in the long term, compared with less than 10% in 2017.
As a reminder, in 2018, the government announced a processing bonus and a 15% allocation of the total cashew harvest to local processing operators. Ivory Coast aims to transform in 2019, 130000 tons of cashews. This volume represents approximately 18% of the expected harvest for this season (730 000 tonnes). The Ivory Coast, the world's leading producer with 725,000 tons in 2016.
Benin must imitate Cote d'Ivoire in production and processing of cashew
Tax incentives for cashew farmers in Côte d'Ivoire will impact the production and processing of the product. This will lead the country to move further away from Benin, which ranks among the top producers of cashew nuts.
For, during the 2017-2018 crop year, the Beninese cashew farmer was able to clear a field margin of at least CFAF 600,000 per tonne of raw nuts. But local processing and the export of this second cash crop, behind cotton, have been a problem for the sale of products.
As a reminder, according to the law of 2019 management, it is established a contribution to research and agricultural promotion levied on export of agricultural products at a rate of 70 FCFA per kilogram on cashew nuts. This contribution is collected on export.
If Benin, aiming to produce 300,000 tons at least against the current production estimated at 140,000 tons by 2021, the measure that Côte d'Ivoire has just taken seems beneficial to boost more economic operators who aspire to install cashew processing factories.
The implementation of measures such as that of Côte d'Ivoire will make it possible to multiply the processing industries of cashew nut crops locally. Its production is driven by the growing interest of farmers in this crop, whose prices on the international market have picked up, under the effect of rising global demand, particularly from Asia, Europe and other countries. United States.
The cashew sector is the third pillar of the national economy after cotton and the port of Cotonou. It contributes 3% to GDP and 7% to agricultural GNP and accounts for 8% of export earnings. Given its importance to the national economy, the government in its Program of Action and in its desire for structural transformation of the economy, retained it among the priority sectors.
Cashew is one of the flagship sectors of the Agricultural Sector Development Strategic Plan (PDSA-2025) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. This is one pathway that offers opportunities for income enhancement and rural employment creation alongside cotton. The Ivorian school will allow Benin to exceed the objectives set and take the place of the country's leading producer of cashew nuts in Africa
By Abdul Wahab ADO
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