Ogbeh: FG to establish cashew roasting factory

Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh said plans have been concluded to establish a cashew roasting company in Benue.

Ogbeh stated this yesterday at the Guardians of the Nations International (GOTNI) leadership clinic for Nigerian youth in Abuja.

“Just last year, the cashew farmers in my constituency made N150 million sales. I gave them the seeds, some of which I brought from Brazil. This last season they made over N200 million. This year, I just returned from home to look for a piece of land where we are going to build a factory for roasting the cashew,” the minister said.

Ogbeh said the factory has become necessary because more money could be generated through roasted cashew than raw cashew.

“Raw cashew goes from here to Vietnam where we visited in October, they roast the cashew there and export to Europe and they earn $3.5 billion per annum. So we have decided to roast the cashew here, make the money and create jobs.

“The biggest cashew exporter in Vietnam is a man who is just 52 year old; he employs 10,000 workers and makes 250 million dollars a year and a profit of 40%. He took us round the factory but guess who did cashew first, the man called Dr Michael Okpara in the first republic. “He planted cashew for two reasons: for erosion control and the other for cash crop. But since he died, nobody has added any new thing,” Ogbeh said.

The minister also lamented the pathetic state of the nation’s oil palm industry, saying Dr Okpara also planted 17,000 hectares of palm trees in the south east, at a time, eastern Nigeria contributed 40% to the world total consumption of palm oil.

“Today we are importing. Malaysia collected the seeds from us in 1961; today they export palm oil to Nigeria,” he said.