Maputo, 27 Dec (AIM) – The Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations (CTA) has confirmed that there is no barrier to the free export to India of Mozambican pigeon peas.
Pigeon peas are a type of lentil that is a key part of the Indian diet. Since India does not produce enough to meet its own requirements, it imports pigeon peas from Mozambique. The Indian government has made it clear that such imports are free of duties and quotas.
But obstacles have been created, apparently by companies trying to control the market – despite an explicit statement last week by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, that there are no limitations on the export of pigeon peas.
There have been contradictory statements issued about how much of this crop has been exported and how much is in storage. A CTA statement of Tuesday said that contacts with the ports of Beira and Nacala show that so far this year 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas have been exported to India.
The CTA chairperson, Agostinho Vuma, urged all operators to export their stocks of pigeon peas. At a Maputo press conference on Tuesday, Vuma said “We want to explain that, contrary to what has been claimed there is no block on exporting pigeon peas in Mozambique”.
He pointed out that Tonela’s dispatch instructed the customs service, with immediate effect, to ensure that all interested economic agents can freely export their pigeon peas without discrimination.
He added that the Mozambican farmers who grow pigeon peas are doing well out of these exports. The producer price for pigeon peas was just 12 meticais (about 19 US cents) a kilo at the start of the year, but then rose to 54 meticais a kilo – a rise of 350 per cent.
Pigeon peas, said Vuma, had become the main cash crop in Zambezia province, and the second main cash crop in Nampula. About a million producers grow this crop.
“We urge the producers to make efforts to increase production and productivity, and improve the quality of their products, so as to ensure the effectiveness of this business, which is lucrative and beneficial for all those involved”, said Vuma.
But two of the exporting companies are waging a bitter legal dispute, resulting in a court injunction that has prevented one of them from exporting.
The CTA says it has tried to bring the parties to the litigation together, and is optimistic that advances are being made to solve the problem definitively, and thus minimize any negative impact.
The CTA called on all the administrative authorities involved in the dispute to comply scrupulously with the decisions taken by Tonela, and by the Administrative Tribunal, in order to safeguard the interests of all those involved in the value chains of the production, sale and export of pigeon peas.
(AIM)
Pf/ (479)
