Photo Credit: Curejoy.com
The export potential of Nigeria’s cashew is at a risk due to the blame game between shipping companies and exporters of the produce. The Punch reported that while exporters blamed shipping companies for increase in rejected cashew abroad, the shipping companies in turn said the exporters are not entirely blameless. We summarize the crux of the argument between the two
Why exporters are unhappy
- Shipping companies often take 120 days to convey the produce to their destinations instead of the required 30 days. They also claim that keeping cashew nuts in containers for a long period of time can damage it due to its fragile nature
- They also complain that the delays often lead to the cashew nuts being returned making them incur huge losses.
- These losses will not be passed on to the shippers if they fail to deliver the cashew nuts to their destinations within the stipulated 30 days.
Shippers Counter Argument
- They called for a look at the entire supply chain instead of putting the blame on the shipping companies.
- They accused the exporters of giving falsified and inaccurate information about the real volume of the product they were sending out
- They complain about delays caused by Lagos traffic (especially the Apapa-Oshodi expressway) when products were being moved to the ports.
- They urged exporters to pay attention to packaging details.
Nigeria is said to export close to 400,000 tonnes of Cashew nuts annually. According to data from the NBS, Cashew Nuts is Nigeria’s 7th most exported product by value.
