Cashew farmers to boost exports with 2m metric tonnes

• $253 million earned from cashew exports in 2015
• Set to cultivate 340,000 additional hectares in 2017
• Targets 500,000Mt/year for $650m in earnings

Cashew farmers in Nigeria are working on a four-year plan to cultivate more land as part of plans to record an exponential increase to 2 million metric tons by 2021. The farmers have disclosed plans to invest more with target at 500,000 metric tonnes a year to raise annual earnings to $650 million.

The President of the Nigerian Cashew Association, Tola Fasheru expressed that cashew farmers are seeking to cultivate additional 340,000 hectares to achieve industry targets to raise annual export income of Cashew to at least $650 million from the $253 million earned in 2015.

“Virtually all the states in the country have the potential to grow cashew. Our sights are even beyond the 2020 target as we seek to make cashew one of the country’s biggest exports”, he said.

The President of the association informed that Nigeria exports more than 80 percent of its cashew output, as raw kernels 60 per cent of which goes to Vietnam.

According to the association, Nigeria is the sixth-biggest producer of cashew in Africa, ranked behind Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique, with an output of 500,000 tonnes per annum Nigeria would become Africa’s second-biggest producer.

Spain-based International Nut and Dried Fruit Council, Reus, in its report stated that global demand for cashew nuts has increased to 53 per cent since 2010, outstripping production in at least four of the past seven years.