ZAMBIA – The Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has intensified its investment promotion efforts by raising a call for potential investors to take part in the establishment of a cashew nut processing facility worth US$5 million.

The modern processing plant, to be located at Chilanga area in Lusaka, is set to produce cashew kernels for the domestic, regional and international markets.

According to ZDA, the project will take advantage of the abundance of cashew nuts in Zambia, capitalise on availability of affordable and trainable labour force and benefit from the existence of a ready market for processed cashew products.

lobally, the cashew industry is producing around 2,463,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew, of which 48 percent or 1,188,000 metric tonnes is produced in Africa.

In Zambia, the current cashew nut production stands at 850 metric tonnes per year from an estimated 1,700,000 trees that produce 0.5kg of raw nuts per tree annually.

The investment project will also benefit from both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives associated with investing in a cashew nut processing plant in Zambia.

“The government, Zambia Development Agency, Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry (MCTI), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) and other government agencies will assist the private investors to establish the project, through various forms of interventions,” indicated the development agency.

The targeted investment will be in the form of equity finance in a special purpose vehicle that will manage and run the project.

It will be utilised to meet the construction costs of the processing plant buildings, acquisition of processing plant, equipment, machinery, vehicles and working capital to pay for raw materials, inputs, salaries and other operational costs.

“The government, Zambia Development Agency, Ministry of Trade Commerce and Industry (MCTI), Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) and other government agencies will assist the private investors to establish the project, through various forms of interventions.”

Zambia Development Agency

Other than focusing on cashew nut processing, the government through the developmental entity is also looking for equity partners to establish mango and tomato processing plants in Lusaka and Monze respectively.

As part of the initiative, the investors will establish a tomato processing plant at a cost of US$5m, with an average production capacity of 10,000 tonnes of tomato paste per annum, producing both cold and hot break tomato paste to meet customers` specifications.

To be constructed on 10 acres of land, the plant is set be operational within 12 months, meeting local demand of the product in the country and tap into the export market.

The tomato processing plant will have an average production capacity of 10,000 tonnes of tomato paste per annum.

The business will outsource tomatoes from all provinces in Zambia, which will need the construction of tomato collection depots for the collection of fresh tomatoes for processing.

Meanwhile, establishment of the mango processing unit is set to cost US$5m.

The processing plant is targeted to produce an average of 30,000 tonnes of mango pulp and 5,000 tonnes of dried mango per annum.

The project is expected to take 12 months to operationalise and will be efficiently served with collection depots and cold storage facilities, that will be constructed in all 10 provinces of Zambia.

Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE