The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has revealed that Nigeria is now the fourth largest producer of cashew in the world. This was disclosed on Thursday, 11th of January 2018, when NCAN President, Tola Fasheru visited the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar in Abuja.
Fasheru stated that cashew farmers in the country earned N123 billion ($402 million) from the export of the cash crop in 2017 and between 2015 and 2017, they earned N284.5bn ($813.05m) in foreign exchange.
The association revealed that Nigeria produced 220,000 metric tonnes of cashew nuts out of World’s total of 2.1 million tonnes in 2017 and exported 120,000 metric tonnes in the same year.
Fasheru called on the federal government to save the industry from folding by creating initiatives such as the provision of incentives to farmers to expand their trade and protection of farms against encroachment from foreigners.
