ABIDJAN, June 22 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's forecast for the 2023 cashew output has been revised up by 22% to a record 1.25 million tonnes, boosted by good weather and smuggling from other countries, the general director of its cotton and cashew council said on Thursday.
Ivory Coast, the world's biggest cocoa producer, has become the leading global cashew producer, with annual production of around 1 million tonnes.
"To date the quantities held by producers are estimated at around 100,000 tonnes on 21 June 2023, which would bring expected production to 1,250,000 tonnes," Adama Coulibaly told reporters, with some 1.15 million already bought from farmers.
The country had initially forecast output of about 1.05 million tonnes for 2023, up from last year's 1.028 million tonnes.
Coulibaly said sellers from neighbouring countries such as Guinea, Mali and Ghana this year have been smuggling their cashews into Ivory Coast as its market is considered more lucrative. "This bothers us because in terms of quality, it's not the same thing," he said.
By June, local processors have received 249,000 tonnes of cashews out of a goal of 300,000 tonnes for the 2023 season, he added.
He said 593,000 tonnes has already been exported to Vietnam and India, compared with 455,315 tonnes in the same period of last year.
Officials are trying to increase the amount of cashews processed locally, Coulibaly said, adding that in a few months four cashew industrial parks being built in the country's north and central regions would boost processing capacity.
Ivory Coast's cashew value chain was hit by a price slump after global demand for the nuts, eaten as snacks or used for cooking and desserts, tumbled after the coronavirus pandemic.
It plunged into an unprecedented crisis despite government subsidies and export incentives to local processors to remain competitive. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Anait Miridzhanian and Jan Harvey)
