DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Monday urged cashew nuts growers to process the crop locally in order to add value before they sell it to international markets.

Speaking in the Newala district in the Mtwara region on his official tour of the cashew nuts growing region, Majaliwa said growers of the cash crop will remain poor if they continued selling raw cashew nuts.

"Now is the time for change. We should use this opportunity to establish cashew nuts processing plants and sell the processed nuts to the international markets," said Majaliwa.

He said a kg of processed cashew nuts was selling at 13,000 Tanzanian shillings (about 5.22 U.S. dollars) while a kg of raw cashew nuts was selling at 2,000 shillings.

Majaliwa said by processing the cashew nuts locally, growers of the crop could also benefit from extracting oil from the shells of the crop.

Tanzania produced 400,000 metric tons of cashew nuts in the 2022/2023 period, but the Cashewnuts Board of Tanzania plans to increase production of the crop to 700,000 metric tons in the 2025/2026 period. - Xinhua