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Eneojoherbert

TAK INTEGRATED PARTNERS WITH FARMERS TO ESTABLISH CASHEW PROCESSING PLANT

TAK INTERGRATED GROUP is partnering with the Association of Cashew Farmers, Aggregators and Processors of Nigeria (ACFAPN) to set up the first ever indigenous Cashew processing plant in Nigeria.
The National publicity Secretary of ACFAPN, Ambassador Yunusa Gabriel Enemali gave this indication in an exclusive chat with market Hub recently.
The plant will be expected to process twenty thousand metric tons of Cashew per year,  to this end, the Association has entered into an agreement with TAK  Integrated to  off take the cashew nuts from farmers under the Association Nationwide. He further revealed that TAK is investing about Twenty Billion Naira into the program beginning from this month of January.
The processing Facility  which will begin in march 2020, is meant to upgrade the living standards of the cashew farmers in all the cashew producing communities of the more than 20 states of Nigeria producing Cashew.
The National publicity secretary decried the Federal Governments non inclusion of Cashew among its major agricultural export commodities noting that Cashew stands today as the Agricultural commodity with the highest export earnings if given attention by the Government.
Enemali hinted that a metric ton of processed Cashew costs a whooping $10,000.00 in the international market imagined what Nigeria and Nigerians would have been earning if we were exporting processed cashew and the product can grow in virtually every state of the Federation.
This seeming indifference to the Cashew commodity is largely borne out of ignorance of its huge potentials .
Nigerian Farmers have been earning paltry sums from the sale of Cashew nuts to exporters but the tangible earnings is in the processed cashew and lamented the non existence of any cashew processing factory in Nigeria as at record time, hence the timeliness of the TAK initiative.
He further revealed that in order to expose the enormous potentials of the cashew value chain to the Government, Banks, Insurance Companies, investors and relevant stakeholders, the Association in Partnership with Leadership Newspapers is putting together a one day CASHEW STAKEHOLDERS/EXPORT SUMMIT. The event, sponsored by TAK Integrated, will hold on Thursday the 30th of January 2020 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja at 9am. The Summit with the theme, “ADDRESSING NIGERIA’S INSIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO EXPORT EARNINGS WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON CASHEW VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT AND EXPORTATION” will have the  Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sabo Nanono delivering the keynote address and His Excellency Yemi Osinbajo, Vice president of Nigeria as guest of Honour.
The event is to among other things, “Create awareness among, the Federal and State Governments, Policy makers, investors, Financial institutions, development partners and other relevant stakeholders  to understand the role , the economic and the health potentials of the Cashew commodity to Nigeria and her Economy.
It is also to promote the cashew product for both local processing and Export”. “The cashew commodity is a Gold mine that the Federal Government of Nigeria needs to diversify into as a non oil sector of the Economy. It will also refocus Government on the local Farmers in the villages, educate the various Financial institutions on the need to invest in the value chain, to extend the anchor borrowers program being implemented on other commodities to be extended to Cashew. It also seeks to expose the job creation potentials of the Cashew commodity. Enemali Emphasized that Cashew alone is capable of providing one million Jobs in Nigeria out of the one hundred million jobs projected to be created by the Federal Government in ten years.