AgDevCo backs West African cashew business
AgDevCo has made an investment into Cashew Coast, a cashew nut processing business in Côte d'Ivoire.
Specialist agriculture investor AgDevCo has made an investment into Cashew Coast, a cashew nut processing business in Côte d'Ivoire which employs 750 people and sources from more than 7,000 smallholder farmers.
Côte d'Ivoire is the largest producer of cashew in the world. Most cashew nuts are still exported in raw form for processing in Vietnam and India, before being shipped to end markets in Europe and the USA, a lengthy and expensive round-trip.
AgDevCo’s mezzanine loan of €9 million will finance the expansion of the company’s processing capacity and the construction of new warehouses, alongside farmer productivity programmes.
The investment is the intended to double the company’s processed volumes to 19,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts a year.
“On both commercial and sustainability grounds, it makes sense to process cashews at origin. We are delighted to begin this partnership with Cashew Coast which will support the company’s continued growth, create more jobs in rural areas and help build a globally competitive cashew processing industry in West Africa,” said Ismail Sentissi, AgDevCo’s investment director for West Africa.
“AgDevCo brings long-term, flexible capital, combined with agricultural acumen and a network of contacts that will help us achieve our ambitious goals,” said Salma Seetaroo, Cashew Coast’s CEO and co-founder. “We are very pleased to close this investment and hope this key milestone will entrench Cashew Coast as a successful and replicable African business model.”
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