Togo imposes tax on cashew nut export

Agriculture

Tuesday, 09 October 2018 12:25

(Togo First) - In Togo, the government imposed a new tax on cashew exports during the ministers’ council held last week. The tax’s value was however not disclosed.

With the new tax, Togo is now on par with its neighbors, Benin, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. A decision which is to be attributed to a global rise of cashew price.

Indeed, the global surge recorded over the recent years spurred an “excess” of competitiveness in West Africa’s cashew industry. According to experts, this competitiveness hampers the growth of this industry and the processing of the nuts, due to a great pressure resulting from international demand.

The purpose of this new tax is improve tax revenues which will be injected back in the cashew sector, contributing to its growth and boosting local processing, which produces more added value.

Togo produced 12,000 tons of cashew nuts in 2017, according to n’kalô’s newsletter. In 2018, this volume should exceed 15,000 tons, about 9% less than the whole West African output. It should be noted that Togo’s cashew nut exports to India soared by 54% to 9,088 tons at the beginning of 2018.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

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