The world's leading producer of cashew nuts with around 1.5 million tonnes harvested during the last campaign, Ivory Coast no longer wants to be content with exporting its raw raw material. To accelerate the change, the Government is focusing on an environment favorable to investments and encouraging the establishment of processing units as close as possible to production areas, in particular via dedicated agro-industrial zones and tax incentives. In Tombougou, in the Boundiali department, this strategy takes concrete form with the establishment of PAN Agro Africa Commodities (PAAC), a subsidiary of an Emirati group which will enter production in 2025.

The factory has a processing capacity of 50 tonnes per day and currently processes nearly 30,000 tonnes of cashew nuts per year, a volume that can rise to 45,000 tonnes when the countryside is fully supplied. The site started with an initial capacity of 18,000 tonnes, eventually expandable to 150,000 tonnes, according to company projections. Beyond the tonnages, it is the social impact that attracts the attention of local authorities. Shellers, maintenance technicians, quality controllers, drivers and handlers, the processing chain thus mobilizes a large workforce, mainly recruited in the Boundiali basin.This dynamic is part of the national objective of increasing the local processing rate to 50% by 2030, compared to around 43% currently, for a country which already has 37 industrial units and an installed capacity exceeding 820,000 tonnes.

It remains to secure the supply of raw nuts to local factories, a challenge that the Government is attempting to be raised via priority purchasing periods reserved for processors. At this price, Tombougou could become one of the symbols of a cashew sector finally in control of its own added value.