Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé inaugurated on 12 July 2024 in Tombougou-Samogosso, in the commune of Boundiali, the cashew nut processing plant backed by the Conseil du coton et de l'anacarde and the municipality, marking the start of full industrial operations for a facility presented as a key lever for local cashew processing in Côte d'Ivoire. During the ceremony, Boundiali's MP-mayor, Mariatou Koné, stressed that this unit is expected to lift thousands of women and young people out of unemployment in the Bagoué region. The government notes that Côte d'Ivoire has been, since 2021, the world's leading producer and exporter of raw cashew nuts, with more than 1.5 million tonnes expected in 2025, and that the ramp-up of plants such as Boundiali is central to its strategy of capturing more value added in production zones. Read also|In Abidjan, Karibu Coffee opens a robusta-focused space to keep more value in Côte d'Ivoire A plant designed as a regional hub for the value chain Located in Tombougou, in the department of Boundiali in the north-west of the country, the cashew processing plant forms part of a municipal strategy to turn the town into an agro-industrial hub by processing locally a cashew output that is already abundant in the region. A project model presented for a plant in Boundiali mentions an annual processing capacity of around 2,000 tonnes of raw nuts, with the possibility of gradually increasing volumes as raw material supply and commercial outlets are secured. For local authorities, the plant is expected to help stabilise prices paid to farmers by anchoring industrial buyers on site, while offering formal jobs in grading, shelling and packaging of cashew kernels. Ramp-up embedded in a national strategy According to the director-general of the Conseil du coton et de l'anacarde, Adama Coulibaly, Côte d'Ivoire's local cashew processing rate rose from 6.22% of output in 2016 to 21% in 2023, i.e. 265,863 tonnes processed locally versus 40,383 tonnes seven years earlier. The Ministry of Finance further recalls that the cashew value chain accounts for between 8% and 9% of Ivorian GDP and that the authorities have set a target of processing at least 50% of national output locally by 2030. To this end, the authorities have multiplied support measures for investors: institutionalising the Salon international des équipements et des technologies de transformation de l'anacarde (SIETTA), creating agro-industrial zones dedicated to cashew, setting up schemes to support local processors' access to raw nuts and helping to install small-scale shelling units within producer cooperatives. Jobs, energy and shell valorisation at stake At the inauguration, Mariatou Koné emphasised the expected social impact, mentioning the creation of several thousand direct and indirect jobs for women and youth in the region, particularly in manual grading, processing and ancillary services around the plant. Projects supported by the World Bank in the cashew chain show that one job created in industrial processing generates multiplier effects upstream for producers and downstream for logistics and retail trade in secondary towns in northern Côte d'Ivoire. In parallel, the State is developing cashew shell valorisation centres to turn shells into CNSL oil, fuels and fertilisers, with the aim of reducing processing plants' energy costs and limiting waste. In Boundiali itself, a biomass power plant project based on agricultural residues, including cashew shells, is under development to generate electricity from this resource. Next test: the 2025-2026 marketing season in Bagoué The next cashew marketing season, expected over 2025-2026, will be a capacity test for the Boundiali plant, which will have to secure a steady flow of raw nuts in an environment where competition from exporters of unprocessed product remains strong.