Nigeria cashew exports to Vietnam surge

Nigeria exported 106,700 tonnes of raw cashew nuts to Vietnam in 2014, a figure amounting to 90 per cent of the nation’s annual output of the product.

Vietnam, the world’s top cashew nut exporter, imported a record 769,000 tonnes of the raw nuts in 2014 for processing for export, a surge of 59.3 percent from a year ago, the Vietnam News reported, quoting the Vietnam Cashew Association.

Vietnam’s cashew nut exports in 2014 jumped 16.9 percent to 305,000 tonnes from the previous year, government data showed.

Nigeria is looking to diversify its economy away from oil and towards Agriculture as it faces a budget shortfall from the 50 percent slide in crude prices since June last year.

Last year , a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the United States Agency for International Development USAID/ the Nigerian Expanded 

Transport and Trade NEXTT and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council NEPC to develop an implementable Cashew Export Strategy as a tool to grow the crop as a boost to the Nigerian economy – through additional income, wealth and job creation.