Nigerian cashew Now Rated 5th Globally, NCAN Says

The National Cashew Association of Nigeria has said Nigerian cashew is now rated number five in the world cashew ranking.

The National President, NCAN, Mr Tola Faseru, stated this in Lagos on Thursday during the association’s extraordinary Annual General Meeting.

He said the crop moved two places up, from the number seven position it occupied in 2012.

He said the volume of cocoa produced in the country had also witnessed a boost, from 90,000 metric tonne during the same period to 260,000MT currently.

Faseru regretted that the problem of bad image held against Nigerian cashew in the global market in the past negatively impacted marketing, processing and distribution of the crop.

“What we did as an association was to take steps to change the perception. First we decided that we were no longer going to use polyethene as packaging materials for our cashew but jute bags.

“We also directed that cashew must be properly dried to remove moisture and now we have started promoting processing. Many processors have come on board since we started emphasizing processing of our cashew locally.”

He said currently, many people come to buy cashew from Nigeria, adding that the association signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnam in 2013 aimed at getting the crop exported directly from Nigeria to Vietnam.

“We are gaining greater visibility among buyers across the globe and when we signed an MoU with Vietnam in 2013, we indicated that we wanted to export directly to Vietnam,” he said.

The NCAN National President disclosed that the government had been very supportive of the sector and its exporters.

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council had positioned cashew as one of the strategic crops to drive its zero oil initiative.