Dedicated services to Asia for cashews
French shipping company CMA CGM restarts its container services fortnightly for 3-4 months. It will cover about 2175 miles connecting by sea from the West African tropical country of Guinea-Bissau with Spain’s Algeciras. “Bijagos Shuttle” is the name given to this particular service and its (cargo) duration will be of 28 days. CMA-CGM said the dedicated service to Asia will be run from Bissau port to Algeciras on a fortnightly frequency from mid-June 2023 to the end of the cashew season.
Service will be provided using two vessels
This dedicated service “Bijagos Shuttle” will use two vessels of 1,700 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit). The first vessel will be LION to leave Bissau on June 24. A substantial stock of 40 foot containers is available in Bissau. Once the smaller shuttle service reaches Algeciras, the containers with cashews will be transferred to mainline ships (large vessels offering direct service to various global destinations) in the westbound Europe Pakistan India Consortium (EPIC) service to reach the ports of Jebel Ali, Khalifa Port; Karachi; Nhava Sheva and Mundra.
Importance of Cashews for Guinea-Bissau
Cashew is the most important cash crop in Guinea-Bissau because it is the main source of income in rural areas. It also contributes 60% of the total country’s exports. The estimated area under cashew cultivation is 0.223 Million Hectares with an annual production of 0.23 Million Tonnes. This makes Guinea-Bissau the fifth largest producer in the world.
Guinea-Bissau and India Cashew business relations
Most cashew nuts produced in Guinea-Bissau are exported to India for processing. Guinea-Bissau exported 0.231 Million Tonnes of raw cashew in the year 2022. From its total exports around 75% of cashes were exported to India and balance 25% cashews to Vietnam, says Rajmohan Pillai, Chairman of the Thiruvanthapuram (Kerala, India) based Beta Group, owners of Nut King brand. Further, Beta Group is about to set up an industrial unit in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau for the cashew business.
Considering the past data of year 2021 by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, India-Guinea Bissau Bilateral Relations document says, cashew crop accounts for more than 90% of export earnings of Guinea-Bissau and almost the entire cashew crop approximately 98% is exported to India for processing. And Beta Group wants to grab this opportunity.
There are also other major shipping lines like Maersk and MSC who provide various transportation modes, including multimodal, to export cashew from Guinea-Bissau to India. But, these dedicated services will provide an easy and fastest mode of operations as it has dedicated hubs in Mundra, Port Klang and Singapore.