The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) has set a yearly revenue target of N250 billion from exports.

The President of NCAN, Mr Tola Faseru, said at the annual cashew season inauguration and workshop in Ilorin, Kwara State, that it was imperative that cashew stakeholders put in more effort to lift the revenue from N23 billion to N250 billion soon.

He said with ongoing capacity expansion, improved processing and packaging procedural skills being imparted and the willingness displayed by the government and sector operators, the target would be achieved.

The workshop had the theme, “The New Cashew Order.” It was organised by NCAN, and featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding( MoU) on the facilitation of cashew cluster financing.

Faseru said if the production base and processing capacity of the group were developed, NCAN could grow earnings to more than N250 billion

He said it is also important to accelerate the implementation of existing incentives, such as the Export Expansion Grant scheme, and improve on research and development in plant technology.

According to him, it was also needful to increase farmers' extension programmes and energise competitive processor, trader and farmer financing schemes. He said there should be promotion of domestic consumption.

Faseru said NCAN planned to boost production of the crop to 400,000 tonnes in five years from the current production volume of 120,000 tonnes per annum.

According to him, the association plans to improve the regulation of cashew trade and provide an enabling environment for all cashew stakeholders.

He stated that NCAN's aim was to improve the profitability of cashew business and to effectively integrate all stakeholders in the cashew value chain.

Faseru added that the association would liaise with the government and international community to drive and engender growth in the sector.

In his goodwill address at the occasion, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, said there were ample investment opportunities in the cashew sub-sector.

He, therefore, urged investors to avail themselves of the investment opportunities in production of cashew fruit juice from cashew apple, activated carbon from cashew nuts shells as cashew nut shell liquid as well as in kernel processing.