The National Cashew As
sociation of Nigeria (NCAN) said there was a need to boost cashew production in the country and also increase its export to earn foreign exchange.
NCAN’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Sotonye Anga, spoke in an interview with  newsmen in Lagos.
Anga said that although the industry presently produces about 150,000 metric tons of cashew annually, the sector would increase its production by 50 per cent in the 2016 season.
“We understand the need to diversify Nigeria’s economy, increase earnings on non oil revenue, create jobs; and we know cashew is one crop that can deliver on these core national objectives.
“There is urgent need to expand cashew production, strengthen cashew processing and greatly increase our national cashew export to earn more foreign exchange for Nigeria while creating jobs for Nigerians.
“Nigeria, with a current annual production of 150,000 metric tons of raw cashew nuts, needs to deliberately increase its production by 50% over the next 4 years.
“This is in order to have sufficient raw cashew nuts to feed local cashew processing factories and also meet the growing demand of India, Vietnam, China, Brazil and countries hungry for Nigerian cashew,” he said.
The publicity secretary said that with reference to international and globally accepted benchmarks, Nigerian cashew farmers, cashew processors and cashew exporters were operating at a disadvantage.
He said that the country should remove the things that put Nigeria’s cashew industry at a disadvantage in order for it to grow.
“The world is hungry for Nigeria’s cashew because our cashew is organically grown and has great and unique taste.
“In line with this reality, we need to grow more, and produce more cashew to meet this rising global demand for Nigerian cashew,“ Anga said.
He said that the cashew industry created over 100,000 new jobs in 2015 and hoped to create additional 400,000 new jobs by 2019.
“It will be fine if we exceed this humble target, but we cannot do it alone, we need the government.
“We plan to create 400,000 new jobs for Nigerians by engaging them across the cashew value chain.
“However, this is the time to make things happen, we need to make the cashew industry work and create wealth for our people and nation”, Anga said.
According to him, as a new cashew season begins in three months, key issues bordering on the development of cashew value chain are critical for Nigeria’s economic growth and development.