FG to double income from cashew to N1.7bn – Ogbeh

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chef Audu Ogbeh has stated that the federal government is set to bring in cashew processing machines that will boost production and increase earnings from cashew to $1.7 billion from $800 million per annum. Ogbeh stated this while speaking on the achievements of the Agriculture sector under the President Buhari led Administration in his office recently. Mr. Ogbeh also said Nigeria can earn double of its current earnings in cashew if it boosts processing of the nuts for export instead of exporting raw cashew nuts. “Before the end of this year we will bring in machineries for processing nuts instead of exporting raw cashew we will process the cashew here, we will double our income from 800 hundred million dollars a year to 1.7 million dollars from cashews alone” He noted that Nigeria export raw cashew to Vietnam and India and they process it and make a lot of money exporting it. “Now send raw cashews to Vietnam and India, they process, create jobs and make two and the half times the profit that we make” “Vietnam earns 3.5 billion dollars a year from cashew nuts bought from Africa, from Nigeria, Ghana, Cote Di vouire, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and Tanzania why can’t we process” he added. Mr. Ogbeh said the Ministry’s LIFE programme is aimed at taking life to the rural areas by providing machines and other inputs to people in the rural areas particularly women and youth. “We have one new programme called LIFE, taking life the rural areas, machinery to cooperative of women and youths, factories for them including crèches where babies can be kept, to add value to what they produce, add value to their cassava, cocoa, banana, whatever they grow, so we will raise this things to appreciable levels of international value and ship out” He added that the government is bringing in 10 new units of one hundred tons a day rice milling machines which will be distributed to rice millers.

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