APA-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) Annual production of raw cashew nuts in Côte d’Ivoire has more than doubled in a decade, from 400,000 tonnes in 2011 to 1,028,172 tonnes in 2022.
Today, cashew is the second most important agricultural export, in terms of both volume and value, behind cocoa, of which Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s leading producer. The cashew industry contributes around 8-9 percent of Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP.
On Monday, the Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production, Adjoumani Kouassi, inaugurated a cashew nut processing plant called AFCOTT CASHEW.
The company, based in Yamoussoukro in central Côte d’Ivoire, plans to process 18,000 tonnes of raw nuts in 2024, compared with 30,000 tonnes in 2025, 40,000 tonnes in 2026 and 50,000 tonnes in 2027.
According to the Minister of State, the inauguration of this plant is part of the dynamic development of the agro-industry sector, with the aim of rapidly reaching a level of 50 percent processing of agricultural products.
“Nearly 80 percent of raw cashew nut production is exported, representing a major loss for the Ivorian economy,” he said. In view of this high cashew nut export rate, Côte d’Ivoire is working to accelerate local processing.
To this end, the government has set up agro-industrial zones dedicated to cashew processing, funded by the project to promote the competitiveness of the cashew nut value chain.
It has also set up a mechanism to support the supply of raw cashew nuts to local processors, as well as support for the installation of small-scale nut shelling units within producer cooperatives.
Today, the cashew industry in Côte d’Ivoire boasts over thirty processing units with a capacity of nearly 350,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts. This has enabled the country to become the world’s leading producer.
Côte d’Ivoire is also the world’s leading exporter, the world’s third largest processor and Africa’s leading processor. However, it is “still a long way off” its objective of processing up to 50% of its production by 2030.
AP/fss/abj/APA