Economic potential of cashew production in Nigeria.

Economic potential

The total land under cashew tree cultivation in Nigeria by 1995 was estimated at about 40,000 hectares, of which about 60% of the holdings were owned by peasant farmers . Currently, the total land area under cashew cultivation has increased to 320,000 hectares (FAO, 2007).

The cashew nut production has been on steady increase from 30,000 metric tonnes in 1990 to 636,000 metric tonnes in the year 2006 (FAO, 2007). This significant increase has been due mainly to the involvement of private entrepreneurs, Federal and State Governments, Cooperative societies and affluent farmers in cashew cultivation (Aliyu and Hammed, 2008).

Nigeria is the world’s sixth largest producer of cashew, with annual production of about 120,000 tones. Currently, 75 to 80% of cashew nuts produced in Nigeria are exported, as only very few companies are involved in local processing of the produce (Aliyu and Hammed, 2008). The government liberalization policy on commodity crops has impacted significantly on the prices and demand for raw cashew nuts in the recent past (Ezeagu, 2002; Topper et al., 2001). However, Nigeria offers one of the cheapest sources of raw cashew nuts. Nigerian nuts have consistently served the Indian and Vietnamese cashew factories and in recent years have added the Brazilian market. The kernels are well accepted in the United States of America and Western Europe because, of high quality of the produce (Aliyu and Hammed, 2008)