Investment opportunity: Upgrade and expansion of Western Cashew Industries Ltd (WCI)
Location: Western Province
Summary: Zambia-based WCI owns 3 740 hectares of land with mature cashew trees. The location of the plantation has over 100 000 hectares of available and suitable land to plant an additional 10 million cashew trees. These would produce an estimated 60 000 metric tons of cashew nuts. WCI has a factory, which it seeks to expand and modernise in order to increase production.
WCI aims to supply local and international markets with products such as flavoured cashew kernels, cashew butter, cashew nut shell liquid for industrial use and shell liquid cake, which is a form of fuel.
Expectations of the project sponsors
- Establish a new and bigger cashew processing plant
- Rehabilitate the current cashew processing plant to increase
its capacity.
- Establish satellite cashew processing plants in Kalabo and Senanga Districts
Type of investment: WCI Ltd is seeking a joint venture arrangement and is also offering 48.95% shareholding to interested investors.
Overview of markets
Local: Zambia imports 99% of cashew and related products mainly from the rest of the continent and Asia. WCI and individual traders supply the remaining 1%.
International: The market for raw cashew has grown steadily in the past two decades. Significant growth has been in Vietnam and India where imports for raw cashew nuts from Africa have increased substantially. Zambia has the potential to produce and export over 30 000 tons of raw cashew nuts annually through international cashew bulk buyers.
For more information contact:
Lomthunzi Mbewe
Zambia Development Agency
email:
lomthunzi@zda.org.zm
Tel: +260 1 222 858
