The President of National Cashew Association of Nigeria, Mr. Tola Fasheru has revealed that the country earned N284.5 billion in foreign exchange from exportation of cashew between 2015 and 2017. Fasheru made this known in Abuja after he led his members to meet with the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar. He explained that the contribution of Cashew to the nation's Gross Domestic Product and national export earnings had maintained steady growth since 2015.
According to him, the export earnings rose from $152m in 2015 to $259m in 2016 and $402.05m in 2017. He listed the country's major trading partners to include Vietnam, India and the United States.
He commended the commitment of the Federal Government to repositioning the economy through cashew production and stressed that the Nigerian brand of cashew nuts was one of the most preferred internationally.
Fasheru appealed to the Federal Government to address some of the problems affecting the production and exportation of cashew in the country. One of the problems according to him is the Apapa gridlock which hampering the exportation. He also appealed for the provision of 2,600,000 jute bags for the packaging of cashew nut harvest for 2018.
