‘With momentum of investment in cashew, Nigeria can achieve 500,000mmt in 2020’

Tola Faseru is the national president of National Cashew Association of Nigeria and the vice president of Africa Cashew Alliance. He spoke with JOSEPHINE OKOJIE about the Nigerian Cashew industry, its challenges and prospects.

In a nutshell can you tell us about the Nigerian cashew industry?

Nigeria cashew industry has experienced tremendous growth and progress in the last 4 years.  In 2012, when we came on board to run the association and give leadership to the industry, the production was about 120,000 million metric tons per annual and has grown to about 160,000 million metric tons per annum today. Recently, there have been major initiatives to boost local production by the Federal Government- which is planning to put up about two million stances of cashew.

With the sensitization programs for the private sector on the commercial advantage of cashew and the revenue yielding opportunities, we have made tremendous progress in boosting production with a lot of people now going into production of cashew nuts. If the momentum is maintained alongside constant training for farmers on how to get better yields and good handling practice to reduce wastages of the crop, the country is sure to achieve 500,000 tons in 2020. Today, the percentage of losses has reduced and storage of cashew nuts is done better, which has helped in improving the quality of the crop.

There is a lot of government attention now more than ever before. In 2013, the government made cashew one of the focused crops under the agricultural transformation agenda. Currently, cashew has been mentioned as one of the 13 crops the government wants to use to diversify the economy away from oil. So, the government is planning to give a lot of support to farmers and processors, and a lot of international support is also coming up like USAIDNEXT, who are in collaboration to boost production. UNIDO is also working with processors to change the face of cashew processors in the country by increasing the level of cashew processing.

What percentage of our production is exported and what are the potentials?

We export about 130,000 tons. As you know, cashew nut is a premium nut and it is one of the most valued nuts in the nut varieties. The consumption of cashew nuts is increasing globally.  The potential for export is very huge and we are working hard to see how we can reduce the rate at which the raw nuts are being shipped out of the country so that we can increase the value addition of processing in the country.

For us to do this, we need a lot of government support because we will be competing with Indian and Vietnam who process and ship into Europe. We need very cheap fund for processing so that our products can be competitive globally.

This is why we have been calling for special funds for cashew, which will help increase, what we are doing in processing. The cheap fund will help stimulate cashew processing in the country together with our advantage of being close to Europe- one of the major consumers of cashew nuts in the world.

How many cashew processing plants do we have in the country and what percentage of our cashew is processed?

We have five major processing companies in the country; we also have some smaller ones. We are currently processing less than 20 percent of what we produce.

What are the major challenges with the processors?

The processors are faced with all the challenges peculiar with the manufacturing sector. Poor power supply, high cost of doing business, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of finance. All these problems make our products not to be competitive, so the government needs to address these issues. If our products become competitive, a lot of people will start investing in cashew processing and before you know it, the country will be processing the entire cashew it is producing.

As the vice president of Africa Cashew Alliance, What is your organisation doing to encourage intra Africa trade for cashew nuts?

Work is currently ongoing in that regard. Ghana does not have enough cashews for its factories, so Nigeria has the opportunity to sell to Ghana. But it is a difficult thing to ship cashew nut to Ghana because the vessel will have to go to Europe first before it gets to Ghana but NIXEM is working on something to see that there is a dedicated vessel for the West African region.

What about road transport?

Numerous checkpoints at the borders make you spend more. Until all of these are cleared, legitimate exporters are not willing to take their goods by road.  There is high rate of smuggling of cashew nuts through the boarders to Benin, and some foreigners go into our farm gate to buy from farmers, using improper channels to take it out of the country. All these affect our statistics and we are calling on the government to support us in controlling the ways foreigners go into our farm gates.

What is Nigeria’s position in cashew production globally?

We are number four in Africa, after Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Guinean Bissau. In the world, we are 6th.

Has the Nigerian cashew been rejected before due to standards?

Earlier, the Nigerian cashew was being rejected because it did not have a voice. At the cashew conference in Vietnam, we made a case for the Nigerian cashew. Subsequently, we signed a memorandum with the Vietnam government. Vietnam is the number one buyer of Nigeria cashew and things have changed now and our cashew is being accepted globally. The MoU has given access to individual Nigerians to sell at the international market unlike before were Asians are our intermediaries.

How can Nigeria increase its cashew production?

Finance is the biggest challenge confronting cashew farmers. It is a very serious problem that the government needs to address. The greatest asset of an average farmer is their land and most of these lands don’t have documents. Government needs to help farmers by providing documents for lands ownership so that they can get loans for money deposit banks.

We need technology to improve our yields. Research institute that is supposed to help in developing seeds with high yields and disease resistance, are not living up to their mandate because they are moribund and no young scientist would want to go there to work. This is why agricultural production in the country has not been where it is meant to be.

For the processors, government needs to provide basic infrastructure, which will help reduce cost of production and make our cashew competitive. There should be an institute that can help in training because the industry is still young and there are no enough skills.

JOSEPHINE OKOJIE