Brasília - Within a few weeks a mini cashew nut factory will be arriving in Haiti as a gift from Brazil as part of an international cooperation agreement signed last week when president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited that country.

The mini cashew factory was developed at one of the Brazilian Farm Research Corporation development units in the city of Fortaleza. It will be flown to Haiti on one of the now regular Brazilian Air Force flights which supply Brazilian troops in the UN Haitian peace mission.

The mini cashew nut factory will create some 32 jobs in the factory and 100 in the fields where the cashew trees grow. The advantage of the factory is that the finished product has a higher aggregate value than the in natura nuts.

Haiti has some 15,000 hectares of cashew trees. A team of Brazilians will accompany the mini factory and train the Haitians to operate it, as well as assist in improving the management of their cashew plantations.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Lana Cristina
Translator: Allen Bennett
08/23/2004