· Cotton-Cashew Council of Ivory Coast has announced its decision to open three new processing plants with the aim of tripling its output of shelled nuts by next year.
· The country is one of the top cashew producers globally, but its processing capacity is miniscule.
· Though Ivory Coast had a record output last year of one million tonnes of nuts, against850 000 tonnes in 2019, only 10 percent have so far been processed domestically.
Cotton-Cashew Council of Ivory Coast has announced its decision to open three new processing plants with the aim of tripling its output of shelled nuts by next year. The country is one of the top cashew producers globally, but its processing capacity is minuscule. Though Ivory Coast had a record output last year of one million tonnes of nuts, against850 000 tonnes in 2019, only 10 percent have so far been processed domestically. The nut nicknamed as “grey gold” has diverse uses, kernels are used in cooking and cosmetics, resin for industrial uses, including as a fluid for aircraft braking systems and the cashew apple used to produce wine, liqueur, syrup, jam and juice. Ivory Coast lost many opportunities due to its lack of adequate processing facilities within the country. Most of its Cashew goes to the US, but is shelled abroad and then shipped to the US at an exorbitant cost. Its raw nuts are Until now the country’s raw nuts have been shipped to India, Vietnam, and Brazil to be processed. Its key export markets include India, the United States, the European Union, China, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
The Ivorian government and the World Bank in 2018 signed an agreement to set up four processing sites at a total cost of $200 million. Karim Berthe, the director of processing at the Cotton-Cashew Council stated that the processing units to be located at Brobo, Yamoussoukro and Bondoukou aim to process 300,000 tonnes annually from 2022 and half of its cashew nuts by 2025. The units are expected to boost the domestic processing rate from 10 to 30-40 percent. The country has 250,000 cashew nut producers organised into around 20 cooperatives.
