Kwara govt commends AG Commodities for boosting cashew processing

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara state has acknowledged the commitment of AG Commodities Nig Ltd to grow the local economy through their investment, and congratulated them on the start of operation, saying the administration is open for partnership.

"Our vision is to have Kwara as the leading processor of cashew in Nigeria. So this is another step to come here and look at their investment and encourage the company, and to also see how the state can partner with the company to scale up the processes," he added.

Ademola Adesokan, managing director of AG Commodities Nig Ltd, noted that they located the company in Kwara because of its strategic location in the cashew belt, its good road network, as well as the business friendly policies of the government.

He disclosed that at least 120 Kwarans have been engaged in the company for manual handling of the cashew nuts daily.

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"With the road network, we feel like Kwara State is a very strategic position to site our company. It is in the middle of Kogi, Ogbomosho, and Kwara region. You can see we are on Ogbomoso road, which is a very strategic place and good for our business. So we are happy to be here and we thank the Governor for this visit.

"It is very manual intensive. Even after we must have processed with our automated processing machines, we still have to deal with about 25 percent of the cashew nuts manually. Every single cashew nut has to be held by hand. A lot of the time we have 120 to 130 working here daily.

"We have ready-made markets in the US and UK. We also have a local line that will be in stock very shortly," he stated.

The governor has said Kwara will focus on agro processing as a strategic roadmap to economic growth and prosperity. The government itself had approved the establishment of a shea butter processing firm in Kaiama local government area in the northern part of the state.