Association wants Nigerians to embrace Cashew Cultivation/ Value Chain 

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has urged Nigerians to embrace cashew cultivation and its entire value chain for economic prosperity, saying the commodity has a huge potential.

The National Secretary-General of NCAN, Sotonye Anga, made the call during an interactive session with newsmen in Lagos, Nigeria.

Anga described the development as a win-win situation for the country, if it adopts the cashew value chain as part of the economic diversification areas due to its huge potential to earn foreign exchange.

“When you consider cashew, you will see its potential for economic transformation and prosperity.

“It is a win-win if Nigeria focuses on its cashew resource.

“If we develop the cashew value-chain, it will be one of our fastest tracks to economic diversification and prosperity.

“We will be able to make more money, create more jobs and earn more foreign exchange at a time when foreign exchange has become a major issue to strengthen the naira,” he said.

Also, Anga appealed to the government to develop cashew processing facilities in the country:

“Cashew is the green gold of agriculture and as of today it stands as the green gold for Nigeria. The potential to industrialize Nigeria via the crop is so huge.

“Over time what has encouraged people to come into the cashew industry is money.

“The truth is that there is money in cashew.

“When you consider all agro-commodities, the only produce that has “cash” in its name is cashew; so that means there is cash in cashew.

“This is because so many industrial products can be gotten from cashew.

“When you harvest your cashew, just from the apple of which over 90 percent is wasted, you can produce ethanol from the juice.

“From the cashew apple we can convert waste to wealth, when harnessed properly and that is huge economically.”

Furthermore, the NCAN secretary-general explained that from the raw nut of cashew when de-shelled, a very viable economic product called the Cashew Nuts Shell Liquid (CNSL) can be obtained.

“The CNSL is in high demand globally, has huge export value and is used for a wide range of industrial applications.

“The roasted cashew nut is also very lucrative as it is the preferred nut for health-conscious consumers,” Anga added.

Source: Agro Nigeria