…. we’re out to reposition NCAN – Adesokan

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – THE National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, Monday, decried the extortion and foreign invasion of the nation’s cashew industry, which had threatened it’s growth and development.

The concerns were raised during a press briefing organised by the interim executive led by the National Interim President, NCAN, Ademola Adesokan, in Abuja.

Adesokan said the exploitation of cashew farmers has become alarming and unacceptable which had disrupted the value chain based on connivance of some cashew merchants and their foreign partners who undermine the industry’s regulations and buy raw cashew at the expense of the local price.

According to him, with his emergence as the Interim National President of NCAN all these issues will be addressed and the lost glory of the association will be restored.

He said: “Our farm gates are being exploited. That’s one of the major issues in the industry. What we are doing now is to try to create some kind of a body that can help bring maybe customs, immigration into the system so that it can help us protect our farm gates.

“Those are one of the issues. We are getting exploited at the farm gate level. We need to put structure in the supply chain of the cashew industry in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the National Interim National General Secretary, NCAN, Olarotimi Ayeka, also asserted that “These past few years, there has been a distortion of the value chain in the Nigerian cashew industry. What do I mean by value chain? The cashew industry is run by farmers Unfortunately, for the past few years, there has been a distortion, because most of the so-called processors and exporters beat every other value chain and deal directly with the farmers, causing some distortions.”

He also said that there are a lot to be done to reposition the cashew subsector in line with the Tinubu-led administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda that would ensure the cashew roadmap is made to be a strategic policy that would serve as a game changer for the sector.

“Then again, we went to the government and said they should play a role in the industry. We went to the government, for the government to come and regulate the industry, help out in reforming the industry for more profitability and growth. We don’t want our farmers to be frustrated. Our farmers, after the Indians come, only buy for one month or two months, and then they run away.

“We now went to the government and said the government should come and help us regulate the industry. Because we realised that the problem we have is that we are not following the international best practices of doing this business.

“Unfortunately, some individuals tried to block the effort of the federal government through the Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

“But today we are happy. The government finally listened to us. And they have to constitute an interim government that will run the affairs of the association in collaboration with the government and all government agencies and bring more efficiency, bring more accountability, bring more growth and progress to all the value chain members in the industry”, he stated.