The government will decentralize the chemical treatment of cashew trees to private companies, which will do the spraying work. The measure aims to encourage the private sector to contribute to the production of cashew nuts in the country.

"When the Government created the Almond Institute, it was only to leverage the cashew nut production, encouraging the private sector to bet in this business that is very profitable. According to the plan, the forecast is that until the end of this mandate the Government will stop subsidizing the chemical treatment of cashew trees," explained Ilídio Bande, director-general of the Mozambique Almond Institute.

The National Almond Institute is the entity responsible for developing a plan to ensure the transfer of cashew spraying services to the private sector.

"We are currently working on the design of the models that are ideal for the application of this initiative in order to motivate the private sector to get into this business," revealed Ilídio Bande.

With the entry of the private sector into the cashew spraying process, the Mozambique Almond Institute hopes to boost the cashew nut industry, since the government did not have the financial capacity to help all the producers in the country.

"We have the average of 20 million productive cashew trees, and within our financial capacity, we are only able to spray about eight million trees. That means we have about 12 million trees that should be pulverized and result in production. Therefore, we think that this space can be occupied by the private sector", referred Ilídio Bande.

In addition to relieving the state coffers, according to the government's forecasts, the involvement of the private sector in the chemical treatment of cashew trees will allow Mozambique to return to the list of the largest cashew nut producers in the world, as it was in the 1970s.

"If we manage to pulverize all the cashew fields that exist in the country, we will be able to produce again about 200 thousand tons in each agricultural campaign, and the cashew nut, especially the one produced in Cabo Delgado, is of high quality and one of the most sought after in the market," said Ilídio Bande.

Currently, the government spends about 400 million meticais per year for chemical treatment of just over eight million cashew trees.

Mozambique has about 150,000 producers and produces 150,000 tons each agricultural season.