<p>A decade ago, the Ivory Coast was a middling producer, growing around 80,000 tons of raw cashews per year. By last season, however, as demand for the nuts has grown, output had jumped to around a half million tons, making it the world's top exporter and second to India in overall production. "The growth is more than impressive. It's astounding," said Jim Fitzpatrick, a cashew expert. "We've never seen a country grow its production in the way Ivory Coast has over the past decade."</p> <p>This season, for the first time, the government set a guaranteed minimum price for cashew farmers, fixing it at 250 CFA francs ($0.48) per kilo of raw nuts. According to Malamine Sanogo, managing director of the sector's marketing board, the Cotton and Cashew Council (CCA), Ivory Coast has hardly scratched the surface of the enormous potential. Ninety-five percent of Ivorian output is exported raw to India and Vietnam for processing. Sanogo says that work should be done in Ivory Coast by Ivorian workers.</p> <p>Within the next five years, the CCA wants 35 percent of Ivory Coast's raw cashew output processed locally. Sanogo said bringing processors closer to producers will allow Ivory Coast to cut out some of the intermediaries in the supply chain, boost prices for farmers, and above all create jobs. Having doubled production over the past decade, Africa's two million cashew farmers produce nearly half of the world's supply of raw nuts, according to the African Cashew Alliance. Many, including growers in top African producers Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Mozambique, are watching closely Ivory Coast's efforts to become a major player in a global market valued at up to $7.8 billion.</p> <p>Some 600,000 farmers already grow the nuts, according to the CCA. But the creation of a domestic processing industry would mean more jobs in the sector. Advocates of the plan point to the giant cottage industry in India where a typical unit processes around 10 tons of cashews a day with a workforce of 1,000.</p> <p>According to a study carried out by the CCA, every 100,000 tons of processing capacity Ivory Coast develops will create 12,300 factory jobs and another 10,000 elsewhere in the sector. The African Cashew Alliance estimates that a 25 percent increase in raw cashew nut processing in Africa would generate more than $100 million in household income.</p> <p>Ivory Coast's cashew sector may just have come of age at the perfect time. Experts say investors, worried by the dominance of India and Vietnam, are showing interest in diversifying supply and Africa is a logical choice for new processing facilities. From just 35,000 tons in 2006, Africa processed a total of 114,600 tons of raw cashew nuts in 2012. At the same time, manufacturers say technological advances in processing equipment will reduce the number of brokens to between 10 and 20 percent. Even the definition of what constitutes an exportable nut appears to be changing.</p>