Nigeria generate billions of naira from cashew nut export

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria,
NCAN, has said that Cashew export

generated $253 million (about N50.4billion)
in foreign exchange for the country in 2015.
President of the association, Tola Faseru,
who disclosed this, said that the nation
produces about 160,000 metric tonnes of
cashew yearly, during the cashew planting
season.
Faseru said the target is to move production
to 500,000 tonnes by 2020, and also be able
to develop a processing capacity of 70 per
cent which is about 350,000 metric tonnes,
noting that Nigeria is the sixth largest
cashew producer in the world after Ivory
Coast, India, Vietnam, Tanzania and Guinea
Bissau.
He said cashew is currently grown in over
21 states of the federation, including Ebonyi,
Kogi, Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia,
Cross River, Edo, Nassarawa, Benue, Taraba,
Ogun, Oyo, Osun , Ondo, Ekiti, Delta, Akwa
Ibom , FCT and Niger, adding that it can be
grown in all parts of the country.
According to him, cashew is one of the 13
non-oil Strategic Export Products (NSEPs),
to be used to diversify the economy under
the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan of
the Federal Ministry of Trade and
Investment.
He expressed satisfaction with the
promptness of implementation of the first
phase of the four-year cashew development
road map in Osun state, which is to scale up
its production.