This document discusses opportunities for growth in Nigeria's cashew economy. It notes that cashew cultivation began in Nigeria in the 1950s and production has increased significantly since then, with Nigeria now the 3rd largest producer in Africa. However, most raw cashew nuts are still exported for processing abroad instead of processing domestically. The document advocates developing domestic and regional markets for cashew products to add more value to the industry and create local jobs.

1. Nigerian cashew economy: Dimensions toNigerian cashew economy: Dimensions to
growth paradigmgrowth paradigm
Sotonye Anga
National Publicity Secretary, National Cashew Association of
Nigeria.
Coordinator Agribusiness, Community of Agricultural
Stakeholders of Nigeria.
anga4000@yahoo.com

2. AbstractAbstract
 This paper examines the current realities of Nigeria’s Cashew
Economy as it relates to the growth and value chain expansion
paradigm. To this end, this paper looks at how Nigeria’s socio-
political and economic realities has propelled the national
economic thrust towards further enhancement of gains and
profitability of commercial crops such as cashew as means of
generating more gainful employment, foreign exchange and
sustainable economic growth. Also, focus will be on how the
National Cashew Association of Nigeria, an umbrella body for
Nigeria’s Cashew Industry is impacting the growing interest on
cashew as a profitable agribusiness in Nigeria. This paper likewise
evaluates the issues that constitute major constrain to the rapid
growth of the cashew agribusiness in Nigeria. Lastly, this paper
articulates the practical approaches that will facilitate the enabling
of a sustainable positive growth of the cashew agribusiness in
Nigeria.

3. When we startedWhen we started
 cultivation of cashew in Nigeria started in the early
1950s, through the efforts of the then Eastern Nigeria
Agricultural Development Corporation where the initial
objective was to use cashew trees for erosion control,
because of the massive erosion problems in that part of
the country. However the designation of cashew nuts
as potential revenue-earning commodity propelled the
defunct Eastern Nigeria Government to commence the
first Nigerian cashew plantation which dates back to
1954, with 800 hectares in the present Enugu State
whereas 200 hectares in the Western part of Nigeria
was similarly established by defunct Western Nigeria
Government (Ezeagu, 2002).

4. Land & populationLand & population
With eighty-four million
hectares of arable land, of which
only 40% is cultivated” (NESG,
2013). Similarly, Nigeria has two
of the largest rivers in Africa in
addition to availability of cheap
labour and huge market
population of 167 million people

5. Cashew areasCashew areas
cashew growing areas in Nigeria are in
Enugu, Abia, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi and
Cross River States in the eastern part of
the country; Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and
Ogun States in the Western part; Edo
and Delta States in the Niger Delta;
Kwara, Kogi, Nassarawa, Benue, Taraba,
Niger and FCT in the Middle Belt, and
Sokoto and Kebbi States in the
Northwest part of the country (NEPC,
2015).

6. Land under cashew cultivationLand under cashew cultivation
Government of Nigeria estimates
the area under cashew
production as 375,000 ha in 2003
as against 278,000 ha in 1999 and
this is about 8% annual increase
of the area under cultivation over
a period of four years (Nugawela,
et al, 2005).

8. Change driversChange drivers
the main driver of change
however, is the existence of
an increasing export market
for raw nuts and the potential
market for processed nuts
both locally and
internationally (Nugawela, et
al, 2005).

9. Our annual productionOur annual production
 A survey carried out by the Nigeria Component of the
West African Cashew Survey, in February 2001, under
the auspices of the Sustainable Tree Crop Project
(STCP) funded by Common Fund for Commodities,
indicated that a much larger surface have been planted
with cashew between 1995 and 2000 (Ezeagu, 2002). By
2013, Nigeria was listed one of the top ten Raw
Cashew Nut (RCN) producing countries in the world,
with a production figure of approximately 150,000
metric tonnes export grade cashew nuts, and Nigeria is
adjudged the 3rd
largest producer in Africa after Cote
d’Ivoire and Tanzania, and 7th
largest in the world
(NEPC, 2015).

10. Official cashew earningsOfficial cashew earnings
In 2013 cashew was recorded as
the third largest agricultural
export and foreign exchange
earner for Nigeria, and about
$110 million was earned by
exporters from cashew, which
represents about 10% of all
agricultural export (NEPC,

11. Import figures from VietnamImport figures from Vietnam
According to Nguyen Duc Thanh, chairman of
the Vietnam Cashew Association, despite
Vietnam enjoying a bumper cashew crop last
year, when output topped 500,000 tonnes,
Vietnam imported 769,390 tonnes in 2014, a
year-on-year increase of 59.28 per cent, to
process for export. Consequently, Nigeria was
the second largest supplier to Vietnam in 2014,
selling 106,734 tonnes or 13.4 per cent of
Vietnam’s imports (Vietnam News, 2015).

12. Building our domestic marketBuilding our domestic market
domestic market has a lot of potential for
Nigeria because of the size of the
population and economy. Hence, the
campaign towards the development of
the domestic market as a means of
harnessing the enormous potential from
cashew value chain, through more
investments in production and processing
of all by products of cashew. No doubt,
this will create more meaningful jobs.

13. Creating a market for Africa’sCreating a market for Africa’s
cashewcashew
We can consume over 50% of cashew
nuts produced in all of Africa by
encouraging only 20% of our population
to consume 400 grammes of cashew
kernels each month, this will bring our
domestic consumption to 13,600,000,000
grammes (13,600tons) and in 12 months
we will be consuming 163,200 tons of
cashew kernels. Meaning, we will require
652,800 tons of raw cashew nuts to
service just our domestic needs alone