- Ivory Coast is ranked as the world’s largest cocoa producer. It is also considered as the top grower of cashew nuts with an annual production of around 1 million tonnes.
- However, the country has only about 10% of capacity to process its output and exports the balance production raw.
Ivory Coast is ranked as the world’s largest cocoa producer. It is also considered as the top grower of cashew nuts with an annual production of around 1 million tonnes. However, the country has only about 10% of capacity to process its output and exports the balance production raw.
The Government of Ivory Coast is taking steps to improve its processing capacity and proposes to devote more than $20 million to support cashew processors to face competition from Asian countries, particularly, Vietnam. The domestic processors had sought government support to improve their processing capacity. The allocation is expected to boost the local processing of cashew. The proposal is expected to be launched in the next two weeks.
The blueprint of the proposal includes increase in the subsidy given to national processing companies, facilitate bank financing through the establishment of a guarantee fund worth more than $20 million etc. It is hoped that the financial support and the private sector initiatives will enable the country to process up to 50% of national production by 2025 or 2026.
Despite being the top producer of cashew globally, Ivory Coast processes only 2.6% of cashews produced worldwide, compared to Vietnam at 52.8%, India at 28.3% and Brazil at 2.8%. According to the government data, the country has only 20 processors, out of which only four are operating, all at a loss. Recently, a U.S.-funded project was launched that aims to invest $61 million over five years in cashew processing in West Africa, focusing on Ivory Coast.
