An agro-industrial zone dedicated to cashew nuts was officially inaugurated this Saturday, September 23, 2023, in Korhogo, in the presence of the Minister of State, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Adjoumani Kobenan, the Minister of Communication and the digital economy Amadou Coulibaly and the general director of the cotton and cashew nut council Adama Coulibaly. The inauguration ceremony was marked by the laying of the first stone of the factories of two operators who acquired industrial lots in the said area. These are the Vietnamese LONG SON, the largest operator in the processing of raw cashew nuts in Vietnam, and the Ivorian EGE PREST, a subsidiary of the SOUKPAFOLO group. According to Minister Adjoumani Kobenan, representing Prime Minister Patrick Achi, the development of this industrial zone comes at the right time to increase national processing capacity. “This is a vital issue for the Ivorian cashew sector because our production of raw nuts has exceeded one million tonnes. We will need to be able to locally transform the largest proportion of this volume in order to create added value locally, and strengthen the position of cashew in the national economy,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. For him, as part of the Government's vision in terms of structural change in the economy through the transformation of agricultural products, this zone will welcome national and international private operators, to achieve the country's objectives in terms of transformation of agricultural products. raw cashew nuts. The installation of an Agro-Industrial Zone is a guarantee of opportunities for producers, he will say, and the guarantee of a stable income for said producers. “The success of this industrial zone also depends on you, dear stakeholders in the sector. We must reassure investors that by settling in this industrial zone, they have the possibility of having the best quality Ivorian cashew in large quantities. We must therefore emphasize the quality of our production by strictly respecting the recommendations of the supervisors, namely: regular collection of nuts, drying and storage away from humidity” he said. -he invites. The cashew nut has asserted itself, over the years, as a strategic sector of Ivorian agriculture and the national economy, said Mr. Kobenan before revealing that in a decade, the annual production of raw cashew nuts has increased. more than doubled, going from 400,000 tonnes in 2011 to more than one million two hundred thousand tonnes in 2022. The cashew nut today represents the second agricultural export product, both in volume and in value, behind the cocoa. Continuing, he indicated that this sector, which has begun its industrial development, already has more than thirty processing units with a nominal capacity of nearly 350,000 tonnes. “I would therefore like to congratulate and thank the leaders of the Cotton and Cashew Council, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Director General Dr Adama Coulibaly, for all the initiatives taken for the development of the cashew sector in Côte d'Ivoire. of ivory. And thanks to which we are today the second largest supplier of almonds on the international market,” rejoiced Minister of State Adjouumani. Developed by the Cotton and Cashew Council as part of the Project to Promote the Competitiveness of the Cashew Value Chain (PPCA), co-financed by the World Bank, this Agro-Industrial Zone, the first of the three developed by the Project, reinforces the achievements of the cashew sector in terms of support for private investment in Transformation infrastructures, explained the first head of the cotton and cashew consultancy, Adama Coulibaly. Furthermore, the general director of the cotton and cashew nut council affirmed that this Agro-Industrial Zone will create a local market for marketing cashew nuts due to the processors that will be installed there, and the storage capacities that it will provide. offers buyers and cooperatives in the region. “The wastewater treatment plant was sized to relieve local factories because they now have equipment that is perfectly suited to recovering their liquid waste,” he added. The agro-industrial zone dedicated to cashew nuts with a total cost of 7.5 billion FCFA is set up over an area of 28.7 ha.