Nigeria’s cashew industry could generate enough revenue to sustain the country’s entire population of over 200 million people without the need for exports if properly developed, the President of the National Apex of Cashew Farmers, Processors and Marketing Cooperative Limited, Yunusa Enemali, has said.
Speaking on a television programme, Enemali decried the untapped potential of Nigeria’s cashew sector, which currently processes less than 10 per cent of its annual harvest while exporting the rest of the raw nuts to Vietnam and India.
He said cashew has over 40 by-products, with cashew nut shell liquid being the most expensive, valued between $70 and $90 per litre, while carbon credits from cashew farming range between $150 to $500, a benefit that Nigeria has yet to fully exploit.
According to Enemali, the Federal Government’s new roadmap for the cashew industry aims to transform Nigeria into a processing powerhouse that could inject $3.7 billion into the economy.
The Cashew Processors and Packagers Association represent over 20 factories with the capacity to process 374 tonnes of kernels daily. However, the processors struggle to access raw materials as most cashew nuts are exported, untreated.
