•Nigerian farmers frustrated,  battle debt

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Nigeria’s cashew industry, once a pride of the nation’s non-oil export sector, is now battling an existential crisis fueled by the invasion of foreign traders who have hijacked the market, exploited local farmers and crippled the value chain. What was once a promising source of rural wealth and foreign exchange has become a tale of sabotage, price manipulation, and deepening losses for local producers.

The National President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN), Ademola Adesokan, lamented that the unregulated activities of foreigners at the farm gate have plunged the industry into chaos. He accused foreign middlemen of exploiting Nigerian farmers by buying directly from them at inflated prices and shipping the produce abroad, contrary to international trade norms.

“Our farm gates are being exploited. That is one of the major issues in the industry,” Adesokan said. “What we are doing now is to try to create some kind of a body that can help bring maybe customs and immigration into the system so that it can help us protect our farm gates. Those are one of the issues. We are getting exploited at the farm gate level. We need to put structure in the supply chain of the cashew industry in Nigeria.”

He added that many farmers have been thrown into debt as they can no longer sell their produce at fair prices or make meaningful profit. “Our members are struggling to survive because the system has been hijacked. The farmers are being used and dumped, and the market is no longer stable,” he said.

Corroborating this, the National General Secretary of NCAN, Olarotimi Ayeka, said the industry has lost billions of naira and valuable international partners because of the reckless export of immature cashew seeds and the distortion of the value chain by foreign agents.

“These past few years, there has been a distortion of the value chain in the Nigerian cashew industry. The cashew industry is run by farmers. Unfortunately, for the past few years, there has been a distortion, because most of the so-called processors and exporters beat every other value chain and deal directly with the farmers, causing some distortion,” he said. He explained that the interference by exporters has also crippled local trading. “How this thing affects us negatively is that these so-called exporters will go directly to the farmers, and they give me a price of N1 million delivered to Lagos. They will go directly to the farmers and buy N850,000. So we have been buying N900,000 from farmers. And the moment they give out the price, it will be difficult for me to even be able to trade and make money. At the end of the day, they only trade in Nigeria for two months,” he said.

According to him, the foreigners come in during the peak of the season, buy massively for export, and abruptly exit the country when prices crash, leaving behind piles of unsold cashew and frustrated farmers. “They only trade in February and March. The first thing that happens in the first week of April every year is that they run and leave the country. They push a lot of people to go and buy cashews at a very high price. But when they leave, they tell you they are going to Tanzania, going to Guinea-Bissau, the Ivory Coast, Benin Republic, and other countries, leaving our cashew here. As we speak now, there are lots of cashews in Nigeria today that the farmers are even discouraged. The traders are discouraged,” he said.

Ayeka also revealed that the sabotage persists because some members of the association connive with foreign buyers for personal gain, frustrating internal reform efforts. “We have tried several times to look at how this thing can be resolved. Unfortunately, they have some kind of arrangement with these exporters that is benefiting them personally. So they have been blocking all our efforts because they go to Indians, Lebanese, and the Chinese who are coming here to distort our value chain. They collect money from them. At the end of the day, they make our effort to be useless,” he said.

The tension within the association recently boiled over after the current NCAN leadership, led by Adesokan, sacked former National President, Dr. Ojo Joseph Ajanaku, and his executive council, accusing them of failing to act decisively on the crisis. However, Ajanaku has dismissed the allegations as lies, insisting he remains the authentic president of the association and that the attacks were politically motivated.

In a statement, Ajanaku said, “The NCAN national election was conducted on the 23rd November, 2024 at FACAN Headquarters 141 Christopher Okojie Street, Katampe Extension, Abuja, and Dr. Ojo Joseph Ajanaku was duly elected as the National President of NCAN, who also was sworn-in by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of NCAN.

The allegation of not allowing the cashew road-map to go through is false and baseless. We only said the document will be looked into for review because it was produced by an international development partner, which amounts to imposition of policy if not reviewed by the Nigerian government. This was agreed in a joint meeting of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), and NCAN.”

He accused the new leadership of blackmail, saying, “We also warn this phantom group to forthwith desist from this cheap blackmail and character assassination. If not, we will escalate this matter against them. We emphatically state that Ajanaku remains the authentic President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN).

Therefore, we call on Nigerians to discard these impostors and agents of darkness who intend to derail the Nigerian cashew industry.”

Ajanaku further described those parading themselves as interim executives as opportunists trying to exploit the situation. “These people who are parading themselves as NCAN interim executive are not to be recognized because they are a bunch of people struggling to make cheap money under the guise of NCAN. We assure Nigerians and the business world that the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) is not divided. We remain one big and formidable association; therefore, we are open to business by the Ajanaku leadership of the association,” he said.

Meanwhile, experts and farmers alike warn that if the government fails to step in urgently, Nigeria could lose its hard-earned position as one of Africa’s top cashew producers to smaller neighboring countries. The industry, which once provided thousands of jobs and contributed significantly to non-oil exports, is now in disarray.

Adesokan’s words capture the mood of a battered industry: “Without proper structure and government intervention, Nigeria’s cashew industry will continue to decline. The farmers are losing, the traders are losing, and the nation is losing valuable foreign exchange.”

As the leadership tussle deepens and foreign traders tighten their grip on the market, Nigeria’s cashew story is fast turning from a tale of opportunity to one of exploitation and neglect, a sad reminder of how lack of regulation and internal discord can destroy a promising sector.