The National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), has urged Nigerians to embrace cashew cultivation and its entire value-chain for economic prosperity.

The group’s National Secretary-General, Sotonye Anga, made the call in an interview in Lagos on Monday.

Mr Anga said that it was a win-win situation for the country if cashew was adopted as part of economic diversification owing to its huge potential.

“When you consider cashew, you will see its potential for economic transformation and prosperity. It is a win-win if Nigeria focuses on its cashew resource.

“If we develop the cashew value-chain, it will be one of our fastest tracks to economic diversification and prosperity.

“We will be able to make more money, create more jobs and earn more foreign exchange at a time when foreign exchange has become a major issue to strengthen the naira,” he said.

He said that the government should embrace cashew cultivation and processing, adding that the association also wanted Nigerians to embrace it for prosperity.

“Cashew is the green gold of agriculture and as of today it stands as the green gold for Nigeria. The potential to industrialise Nigeria using the crop is so huge,” he said.

Mr Anga further said that there was a wide range of derivatives from cashew and if harnessed properly would result in foreign exchange earnings for the country.

He said: “Overtime what has encouraged people to come into the cashew industry is money. The truth is that there is money in cashew.

“When you consider all agro-commodities, the only produce that has “cash” in its name is cashew; so that means there is cash in cashew.

“This is because so many industrial products can be gotten from cashew .

“When you harvest your cashew, just from the apple of which over 90 per cent is wasted, you can produce ethanol from the juice.

“From the cashew apple we can convert waste to wealth when harnessed properly and that is huge economically.”

The secretary-general revealed that from the raw nuts of cashew when de-shelled, one could derive from it, a very viable economic product called the Cashew Nuts Shell Liquid (CNSL).

“The CNSL is in high demand globally, has huge export value and is used for a wide range of industrial applications.

“The roasted cashew nut is also very lucrative as it is the preferred nut for health conscious consumers,” Mr Anga added. 

(NAN)