Government expects macadamia to be one of the cash crops responsible for leveraging the family sector by increasing its income.

The vice-minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Olegário Banze defends, in this context, so that through the SUSTENTA model, the mechanisms of integration of this sector are defined, with the purpose of guaranteeing its participation in the actions of fomentation and production through the commercial companies.

In Mozambique, the macadamia is still an emerging crop and is produced mainly in the provinces of Niassa, Zambezia, Manica and Maputo, and is expanding to other provinces such as Inhambane and Gaza, involving almost exclusively the business sector and, in most cases, the plantations have not yet reached their production potential.

"Macadamia is primarily an export product that must meet high quality requirements in order to be able to generate returns and make investment viable. Mozambique has a great potential and right now efforts are being made to design steps to exploit it and have successes in a long-term perspective," he said.

The source was speaking recently in Maputo, during the first technical seminar on macadamia culture, organized by the Mozambique Almond Institute, IP (IAM), in coordination with the Mozambique Macadamia Association (AMM).

On the occasion, the vice-minister said that "the overall objective of these technical seminars is to create a starting point to support decision makers in the design and implementation of the national policy and strategy for macadamia production based on knowledge about the dynamics of the business of this nut in the world and understanding the main challenges of the sub-sector in Mozambique."

The seminar took place in a hybrid format (virtual and face-to-face) and aimed to provide key staff from the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry and Trade, and Economy and Finance, as well as researchers and provincial delegates with knowledge about macadamia agro-technology.