The factory is owned by the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN), but management will be farmed out to a private company.
According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, Guebuza drew the attention of the factory owners to the need to guarantee the safety of the workforce. The President made this warning when he noted an absence of protective clothing, which meant that the workers in the new factory are exposed to the acidity of cashew nut oil.
Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco said that Guebuza’s instruction has been accepted and the owners have promised that they will immediately seek ways of overcoming the lack of protection for the workers.
Speaking to reporters, Pacheco said that, despite some oscillations, national cashew production is generally on the increase. He stressed that factories such as the Nangade plant, producing processed and packaged cashew kernels, will reduce the quantities of nuts that are exported unprocessed.
Pacheco also warned that it was important for the factory to have a healthy relationship with cashew producers, and offer them a fair price for their nuts. “On this will depend the decision of the producers to sell their nuts here, or to walk long distances to find someone else to buy them”, he said.
The director of the National Cashew Institute (INCAJU), Filomena Maiopue, said the factory was a grant from India to the Mozambican government. The government had then decided to offer it to the ACLLN, in recognition of the role played by the veterans in their struggle for the independence of the country.
“We had financial problems”, Maiopue admitted. “The equipment was donated by India and when it arrived we were not financially prepared to transform it into a factory. Because of the location of Nangade (on the border with Tanzania), many contractors were not motivated to come up here and build the plant”.
This led to delays in completing the factory, she said. Two contractors had to be hired, since the first did not honour his contractual obligations.
Post published in: Africa News