Patrick Joseph Okilan, an expert with the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and a cashew farmer who is also one of the buyers of cashew nuts in Uganda, explains that a cashew tree will start to be harvested from one and a half or two years.
He adds that for the first years, the harvest may not make economic sense as you will be harvesting about 4kgs, but when it reaches 10-12 years, one can harvest up to 55kgs a season and it has two seasons a year.
“Today a kilogram of unprocessed seeds goes for sh3,000 and the processed one goes for sh35,000. This means that from the 50kg, you will earn sh150,000 from unprocessed seeds and from the 27 trees in an acre you get sh8.1m. For the processed, a tree will give you sh875,000 and from an acre sh23m,” he says, adding that you can harvest for over 100 years.
Phoebe Mujabi, who runs Darlin products in Nakasero which buys raw cashew nuts and adds value to them, explains that the product has big potential in Uganda.
“We are importing the nuts from Tanzania and this is why our products look expensive,” she says.
She adds that the Ugandan corporate have adopted eating the nuts, hence creating a ready market for them.
