.wants FG’s interventions to upscale production

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – THE National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, Thursday, disclosed Nigeria’s cashew export hitting
600,000 metric tonnes per annum.

The disclosure was made by the National President, NCAN, Dr Joseph Ajanaku, on the sidelines of the Nigeria Cashew Day 2026 with the theme ‘Unlocking the Full Potential of Nigeria’s Cashew Industry through Investment, Innovation and Global Trade’, held in Abuja.

However, Ajanaku also said the Association is pushing hard for the country to regain its number one position in cashew production with various mechanisms put in place including massive cashew tree planting across the country.

NCAN called for greater investment in local processing, improved infrastructure and supportive government policies to boost value addition, create jobs and increase revenue from the sector. The association also urged stronger collaboration between farmers, processors and exporters to sustain growth and enhance competitiveness in the global cashew market.

He said: “Nigeria has the largest population of the black race of the black race in the world. We have the land, weather, and everything to our advantage to be there as number one cashew producer in the world.

“So this forum today further energizes that aspect that we are going to push to have the cashew production increase in the country.

“The cashew industry is assuming a new dimension from where we used to be in 2001. There was this speculation that we were doing about even less than 200 or 220 metric tonnes but because of what we have been doing as an association, how to say that we have our cashew well packaged, that the outside world will receive the production, we have grown significantly from that level to close to 600,000 metric tonnes of cashew being exported out of the country.”

However, he said, one major challenge is the invasion of foreigners into cashew farms who engage farmers and shortchange them with their prices.

According him, “One of the major challenges we have is that some foreigners in the country, do away with our cashew without filling the Nigeria Export Proceed Form because they don’t want to repatriate what they have exported out of the country. That is one of the reasons why you cannot get the accurate figure of what we are actually producing in the country.

He said if the right structure is on ground this illegal trade by foreigners would not be there, and the government and stakeholders would know what is being produced, exported and repatriated to the country.

“We don’t have the right statistic framework to know exactly what is produced and what is exported. This is why this administration has taken it upon itself to set up what we call NCAN Farmers’ Mapper. This Mapper, we want to use it to map all our farms within the country in order to know what they are producing and where the cashew is going to, who is exporting and where is it exported to”, he said.

Meanwhile, the NCAN boss called on the Federal Government to come up with what he referred to as Special Agro Processing Loan, SAPL, with an interest rate of
10 per cent,

“If farmers get that they will be able to compete with the outside community because we stand at a very big advantage”, he added.

The President, African Cashew Alliance, ACA, President, Mr Ibrahim Sanfo, called on African governments do formulate policies that would help cashew farmers instead of exporting the raw cashew at their own detriment.

“We need good policy because the government needs to take a decision to make processing good in Africa. If we process more we can process for our local consumption.

“Our processing is less than 10 per cent and we export 80 to 90 per cent, and we need the government support for that. Without government we cannot resolve this problem.”

He also called on government for more funding.for the cashew industry in Africa including technology and support for.local.processing and consumption.

Meanwhile, the National President, Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria, FACAN, Sherif Balogun, called on government to work closely with cashew processors, farmers, marketers, exporters, and consumers themselves to change the narrative.

“Once you have coordination between all the stakeholders, then there’s room for a smoother operation, smoother production, smoother processing, and better products, and well-priced products on the table of consumers.

“We see a tremendous growth in non-oil exports to the development of Nigeria’s economy from about $5.7 billion to $6.1 billion this year in exports.

“Cashew alone has contributed over $400 billion. Exporting over 300,000 tonnes of cashew has contributed about $450 million to the economy. That is big for just one product to contribute that kind of amount. Cashew sector is producing a lot, and we can do more because in the next five years, with adequate planning, we should be able to move our production to about $1 million”, Balogun said.

According to him, “Nigeria is processing just about 20-30 per cent of what we are doing, and from what we are seeing, I have been trying to encourage value addition.”