Post by Trade facilitator on Jul 19, 2018 5:11:54 GMT 1
Following the fall in the price of cashew products in 2018, the Kogi state government has said it would take proactive measures to check excess production of cashew in the state to obviate a recurrence of the current price crash in 2019.
The Permanent Secretary of Kogi Ministry of Agriculture, Emmanuel Idenyi, made this known in a meeting held in Lokoja.
According to him, the decision to intervene in cashew production processes was due to the crash in the price of cashew products, which led to low sales in the current production year.
Idenyi also revealed that there was information regarding the influx of adulterated cashew products into the state.
“In order for the state not to lose the status of producing the best cashew in Nigeria, by next year, we shall have labelled bags or sacks for our cashew produce and in the process, block produce from other states,” He said.
In the same vein, the Director of Agricultural Services in the ministry, Jeremiah Onugba, warned that the state government would blacklist buyers who indulge in buying any grade of cashew nuts for merchants; adding that such persons are not after quality but quantity.
Reacting, the State Director of Produce, Oyekunle Agbana, stated that over 78,000 metric tons of cashew nuts were graded in the state in 2018, as against 65,000 metric tons graded in 2017.
Recent report by the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) revealed that Nigeria is the fourth largest producer of cashew in the world; producing a total of 220,000 metric tonnes of cashew nuts out of world’s total of 2.1million metric tonnes in 2017 and exported 120,000 metric tonnes in the same year.
The Permanent Secretary of Kogi Ministry of Agriculture, Emmanuel Idenyi, made this known in a meeting held in Lokoja.
According to him, the decision to intervene in cashew production processes was due to the crash in the price of cashew products, which led to low sales in the current production year.
Idenyi also revealed that there was information regarding the influx of adulterated cashew products into the state.
“In order for the state not to lose the status of producing the best cashew in Nigeria, by next year, we shall have labelled bags or sacks for our cashew produce and in the process, block produce from other states,” He said.
In the same vein, the Director of Agricultural Services in the ministry, Jeremiah Onugba, warned that the state government would blacklist buyers who indulge in buying any grade of cashew nuts for merchants; adding that such persons are not after quality but quantity.
Reacting, the State Director of Produce, Oyekunle Agbana, stated that over 78,000 metric tons of cashew nuts were graded in the state in 2018, as against 65,000 metric tons graded in 2017.
Recent report by the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) revealed that Nigeria is the fourth largest producer of cashew in the world; producing a total of 220,000 metric tonnes of cashew nuts out of world’s total of 2.1million metric tonnes in 2017 and exported 120,000 metric tonnes in the same year.
