Farmforte Agro and Allied Solutions Limited, has unveiled a new Cashew Processing Facility in Benin City, Edo state. The facility was commissioned recently by Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo state who was accompanied by Senator Matthew Urhoghiye and other distinguished guests.
This is a major milestone in line with Farmforte’s commitment to consistently ensure market access for over 112,000 smallholder farmers within the agriculture value chain.
According to a statement, the processing facility is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery that has a production capacity of 24MT per day that will provide jobs and enterprise opportunities for the youths and people of Edo State.
Speaking on the acquisition, Osazuwa Osayi, Farmforte’s co-Chief Executive Officer, in the statement said: “This new processing facility is in line with our long term commitment to continuously create sustainable outcomes in the agri-value chain. We believe that this facility will enable us to increase cashew nut processing capacity and export less raw commodity; thereby increasing Nigeria’s access to the global market.”
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The Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, stated that “the government will continue to support the private sector to enable them create more job opportunities, expand into new markets and reduce risk. With this new facility, Farmforte is adding value and encouraging farmers to increase the harvesting of cashew nuts and fruits, enabling Edo State to become the number one cashew producer in Nigeria.”
Despite being one of the largest producers of this crop, Nigeria is yet to tap into the economic value that can be derived from locally processed cashew nuts. Currently, raw cashews are being exported and processed into cashew nuts by foreign countries then sold to Europe and back to Nigeria. This is an economic challenge Farmforte is working towards change.
Uyi Osayimwense, co-Chief Executive Officer of Farmforte, reiterated that quality was a major factor in their operations. “At Farmforte, we are reinventing Nigeria’s cashew industry by investing in a state-of-the-art processing plant that can process large amounts of cashew at export standard. Presently, we source raw cashew from local smallholder farmers and make sure Kernel out-turn ratio (KOR) is 49 and upwards to ensure maximum quality”.
