The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has disclosed that it is working on exporting cashew directly from the South East region in a bid to increase non-oil exports in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Executive Director of the council, Mr Olusegun Awolowo on Thursday in Enugu during a workshop organised by the council for stakeholders in the cashew value chain.
He disclosed that the NEPC had developed what it called “Zero-Oil Plan” initiative to boost foreign exchange earnings through the non-oil export sector, adding that its aim is to earn 20% of Nigeria’s GDP from non-oil exports.
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“The initial target is to exceed US$30 billion in non-oil exports over the next 10 years, add extra US$150 billion to Nigeria’s foreign reserves and lift at least 20 million Nigerians out of poverty.
We, therefore, require the collaboration of the state government and other stakeholders to develop exportable products from cashew,” he said.
He added that NEPC’s ‘One-State One-Product’ programme was developed to ensure that each state focused on at least one product to develop for export, citing that Enugu State had cashew and palm oil as its main and alternate products.
READ: Export: One-State-One-Product initiative will achieve $30 billion non-oil exports by 2025 – NEPC
“We have a long way to go to be able to meet local demands and export, The quality issues have to be resolved because what sells products is the quality assurance,” he said.
The NEPC boss said that Nigeria is the second-largest producer of the nut with an annual production of 350,000 metric tons.
What you should know
Nigeria exported cashew nuts valued at N45.88 billion, with the highest quantity recorded in Q2 2020. The breakdown of cashew nut export shows that cashew nuts, in shell that was exported in the review year was N38.36 billion, while that which is shelled was valued at N7.52 billion.
I have tons of cashew nuts. How do I export them. Third parties are cheats.
You may need to contact Vietnamese buyers such as Thanh Trung Pro and Phu Tho Binh.
Are you in benue or Nsukka?
Do you have up to 100 tons?