CÔTE D’IVOIRE – The Ivorian government, on January 8, inaugurated a cashew nut processing unit, AFCOTT CASHEW in Loukoukro, in an effort to increase local processing in the cashew sector.
Spanning 20 hectares, AFCOTT CASHEW was built by the agribusiness company Afcott Cashew Sarl, a subsidiary of the Kewalram Chanrai industrial group.
In Ivory Coast, the world’s leading producer of cashew nuts, nearly 80% of the annual production of the nuts is exported in raw form.
Annual production of raw cashew nuts in Côte d’Ivoire has more than doubled in a decade, from 400,000 tonnes in 2011 to 1,028,172 tonnes in 2022.
The government is therefore devising measures to increase the creation of added value in the sector, by encouraging the private sector to invest more in the processing segment.
Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food Production presided over the inauguration of the processing unit.
According to news relayed, the unit has an initial processing capacity of 20,000 tonnes per year of raw cashew nuts for the production of cashew kernels with plans to increase the processing capacity of the factory to 50,000 tonnes by 2027.
Fadiga Youssouf, purchasing manager at Afcott added that the factory will include processing of almonds, starting with 4,000 tonnes in 2024 and reaching 11,000 tonnes in 2027.
“We want to have a substantial impact on the market, both nationally and internationally,” he explained.
On his part, Adama Coulibaly, general director. of the Cotton and Cashew Council (CCA) noted that the investment strengthens the contribution of the private sector to the processing segment within the Ivorian cashew sector.
“With all the ambition that we have through the development of agro-industrial zones, I can say that the government’s objective of transforming 50% of our production by 2030 will be achieved,” Adama added.
A timely investment
The investment is timely, as it comes at a time when the executive aims to locally process 50% of its annual cashew nut harvest by 2025.
Recently, the pan-African developer and operator of industrial parks ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms (ARISE IIP) just signed a memorandum of understanding with the agri-food company Sonata, a subsidiary of the Lagata investment group based in the United Kingdom, for the establishment of an active joint venture in cashew nuts.
The venture, announced on December 5, 2023, will be responsible for managing the implementation of a £100 million (US$126 million) investment project co-financed equally by both parties for the construction of a walnut processing factory cashew in the Arise Industrial Economic Zone (ZEI) of Abidjan PK24.
The new infrastructure would cover an area of 15 hectares. Once operational, the factory should be able to process 100,000 tonnes of cashew nuts per year.
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