Côte d’Ivoire has secured a new investment in its cashew processing industry, with TAN Ivoire SA receiving a €9 million loan from Belgium’s development finance institution BIO to build its first cashew processing plant in the northern part of the country.

The project, presented on November 9 by EDFI Management Company, involves an investment linked to Singapore-based TAN Mondial, which has been active in Côte d’Ivoire since 2005, trading cocoa, cashew nuts and rubber.

The planned facility will have an annual processing capacity of 30,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts, allowing the company to expand beyond commodity trading into local industrial processing.

The financing is backed by a €5.4 million guarantee managed by EDFI Management Company under a European guarantee mechanism.

The project is expected to strengthen Côte d’Ivoire’s domestic cashew processing capacity, create jobs and provide additional market opportunities for local producers.

The investment comes as Côte d’Ivoire seeks to increase local processing of its agricultural commodities and capture more value from its cashew production rather than exporting raw nuts.