Following the neglect of the Cashew farming in Nigeria, the country lose N380 billion annually to its inability to export the crop despite having capacity to create enormous wealth for farmers across the country and generate huge foreign exchange for the government.
The National Cashew Association of Nigeria has stated that due to lack of value addition and Nigeria’s inability to process cashew nuts in significant quantities for export, the country lost $1.4 billion in 2016.
According to the group, Nigeria exported a total of 160,000 metric tonnes of cashew valued at $300 million in 2016. This was far behind what farmers and exporters could have earned assuming there were processing factories that could process cashew nuts for export standard.
The cash crop, which is an important industrial and export crop whose potential is yet to be fully exploited in Nigeria, is said to provide livelihood for over 300,000 families and has created 600, 0000 jobs.
A cashew exports expert, Mr. Sotonye Anga, said for the industry to be galvanised, strengthened, restructured and better positioned, it requires at least a N100 billion intervention fund to put the industry in top shape. He said a minimum of N20 billion will help.
Anga said the industry needs to be intensified to drive growth of industry, which will attract investors, saying priority must be given to cashew processing to ensure that Nigeria’s cashew processing capacity becomes competitive.
“When you are processing cashew, you know that you are processing a global product that will be consumed globally. So issues of quality become very critical, which means that there is need to deploy the right kind of technology to deliver high quality value added cashew. The equipment for processing will cost money because they are not produced locally; they have to be imported. We need to ensure we have right machinery to process cashew and build the right infrastructure,” he said.
