Mozambique’s macadamia exports via South Africa are continuing to recover from pre-Covid highs of about 1 476 metric tonnes in 2019 to a target of 1 250 tonnes for 2024.
That’s according to José Manuel, director of the Gurué District Economic Activities Service, a business incubator and trade agency in Mozambique’s macadamia-producing province of Zambézia.
In an interview with Radio Moçambique, he identified lagging fruit ripeness and direct export impediments as ongoing challenges for GF Macadâmia and Murimo macadâmia, the two producers growing macadamias in Zambézia’s Gurué district.
A 2022 report by the country’s institute for macadamia nuts, Instituto de Amêndoas de Moçambique, found that shipping costs to export markets like China had tripled due to logistical issues.
“Mozambique also currently lacks direct export approval to China, requiring exports to go through intermediaries in Hong Kong,” the report on Mozambique’s macadamia value chain said.
Last August, the Secretary of State for Manica Province where macadamias are also farmed, Dick Kassotche, bemoaned the fact that Mozambique had to tranship its macadamias via South Africa.
On a visit to Macs in Moz, a producer in Sussendenga Province, told London publication Further Africa: “The product leaves here for South Africa.
“This country then sends it to China and Europe as if it were a South African product, a situation that worries us. We need to let the world know that this product comes out of Mozambique.”
In addition to markets in Asia, South Africa exports Mozambican macadamias to Europe and America.
Established as a crop in 2000, macadamia export prospects for Mozambique remained on track until 2019 when the coronavirus outbreak disrupted markets.
Manuel said the target of 1 250 metric tonnes for 2024, although substantially lower than 2020’s 1 472 mts, appeared to be well within the year’s remaining range.
Currently, 375 tonnes of the projected annual export total has been achieved.
