Big cash from cashew nuts

By BOSORINA ROBBY
CASHEW nut is a potential million-kina industry that could be deemed as “free and easy money” for the producers.
This was the message from Cashews International Ltd chief executive Ron Bell last week at Launakalana Estate, Rigo, Central province, where it has a 300ha cashew plantation.
He was speaking at the launch of the cashew outgrowers’ programme to local villagers.
The aim of the programme was to give interested villagers 40,000 cashew seedlings, valued at K1.8million, by the end of this April.
  Bell said CIL was only interested in helping the villagers make money through the trees.
“We want you to plant these trees on your land,” he said.
“What you will get is yours, your money, your business and your cashews.
“We will only support and make this project big and good.
“The big benefit for this is that the trees, after the first five years of harvest, will continue to make money for you and your children and children’s children for the next 80-100 years.
“So we are planning for the future in this programme.”
CIL operations manager Allan Manning said this opportunity was open to any interested villager.
He said those interested would have to register with the CIL to ensure that proper data was kept on all growers, and would get an ID card which would assist in determining methods of payments per kilogramme and other supporting information that growers and CIL would need.
“We will be giving between 50 and 1,000 trees depending on the size of your land,” Manning said.
“This way, you can be assured of earning more money from the trees than if you had less than 50 trees.”
He said a five-year old cashew tree would produce on average K45.
“If you have 100 trees, that’s K4,500 in one year,” Manning said.