The Government of Filipines has tagged cashew nuts as a niche product for local and foreign tourists as domestic self-sufficiency is targeted to be attained between 2015 to 2020. This was announced when officials of the Agriculture department and local governments launched a cashew tree propagation program in nine towns in Palawan in southern Luzon last week. "The program aims to increase the hectarage that we have for cashew in the next five to 10 years," Rene Rafael C. Espino, director of the Agriculture department’s High-Value Commercial Crops Program, said in an interview. "We did that because cashew is one of the crops that we can have a competitive advantage in... we look to it as a niche product for the tourists, both local and foreign," he said.
"Primarily, the program will involve the establishment of nurseries, the distribution of planting materials and training for the farmers," Mr. Espino said. Top cashew nut producer Palawan accounts for 90% of the national output, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show. The remaining cashew nut output is sourced from Bataan. Palawan produces about 100,000 metric tons of the commodity annually.
But Mr. Espino said the country has yet to attain self-sufficiency when it comes to the nuts, as it produces only 60% of its needs in 120,000 hectares of plantations. "We expect that between 2015 and 2020, we will be self-sufficient in cashew nuts," Mr. Espino said, adding that the government and local stakeholders target an additional 10,000-15,000 hectares for the program. For the first year of the project implementation, which will last until November next year, the Agriculture department expects to increase cashew tree plantations by 2,000 hectares with the initial P2 million of funds given to local government units.
"Primarily, the program will involve the establishment of nurseries, the distribution of planting materials and training for the farmers," Mr. Espino said. Top cashew nut producer Palawan accounts for 90% of the national output, data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics show. The remaining cashew nut output is sourced from Bataan. Palawan produces about 100,000 metric tons of the commodity annually.
But Mr. Espino said the country has yet to attain self-sufficiency when it comes to the nuts, as it produces only 60% of its needs in 120,000 hectares of plantations. "We expect that between 2015 and 2020, we will be self-sufficient in cashew nuts," Mr. Espino said, adding that the government and local stakeholders target an additional 10,000-15,000 hectares for the program. For the first year of the project implementation, which will last until November next year, the Agriculture department expects to increase cashew tree plantations by 2,000 hectares with the initial P2 million of funds given to local government units.
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