MOZAMBIQUE - Page 7.
"407.  In the Committee's view, the reforms which Portugal
claims to have introduced not only do not meet the basic aspirations of the peoples of the Territories but have not even brought
about, as yet, any significant changes in political, economic,
social and educational conditions."
THE ECONOMY
The economy of Mozambique is based mainly on agriculture,
with an increasing emphasis being put on mining and industry.  The
low educational standards prevailing in the country set a limit
upon the industrial development of the economy.  The racial line
dividing African from European labour, with a strong tendency to
favour the latter in the distribution of white collar and skilled
jobs has tended to discourage African initiative in the general
economy.  The African labourer is treated as unskilled no matter
how skilled he may be, in order to protect the European unskilled
and skilled labourer.  This policy has a definite negative effect
on the economy of the country.
In agriculture Mozambique produces tropical and sub-tropical
crops for both subsistence and export, while importing from abroad
practically all her manufactured goods. Agricultural produce falls
into four main groups:  1) Uncultivated produce, that is, those
crops which grow as part of the natural vegetation and are gathered
mostly by the Africans.  These include cashew nuts, bees wax, castor
seeds, copra, jute, mafura nuts, mangrove bark, rubber and timber.
2) Traditional African cultivation, mainly for direct consumption
by individual African families.  They include maize, manioc, rice,
ground nuts, Kaffir corn, potatoes, bananas, sesame and tobacco.
3) Concessionaires, European owned monopolies dealing chiefly in
cotton and rice.  These crops are grown by Africans, with seeds
supplied by the concessionaire companies who also, in cooperation
with the colonial government, supervise the planting, cultivation
and harvesting of the crops, organize regional workers and storage
depots.  They buy the produce from Africans at government fixed
prices and prepare it for export.  4) Finally, European-owned
plantations producing sugar cane, sisal, tea, copra, maize, tobacco,
citrous fruits, bananas, vegetables and flowers.
The most important of the uncultivated produce are cashew
nuts, which are one of the major exports of the country.  The subsistence economy of the Africans has been adversely affected by
the obligation to plant cotton and rice for European concessions
and by the absence of a large proportion of the able-bodied male
population who migrate in large numbers to seek work in South
Africa and the Rhodesias.
Cotton production is the most important of the European concessions.  The production of cotton in Mozambique has increased
tremendously since the Second World War.  From 1945 to 1959? sales
of cotton fibre by the Africans increased from 62,758 tons to
134,900 tons.  The Portuguese Government has made a great effort
to increase cotton production in order to supply the textile mills
in Portugal.
In May 1961, the Portuguese Government declared that it was
discontinuing the forced cultivation of cotton and rice by the
indigenous people.  Hov/ever, it remains to be seen whether this
will have any effect in the labour practices of the economic monopolies.
The production of sugar is in the hands of a few companies,
and has become the second main export of the country.  Copra is
another export product, cultivated mainly on European-owned
plantations along a 400 mile coastal belt between the towns of
Quelimane and Porto Amelia.