State-run cashew-nut Board of Tanzania (CBT) is in the process of creating an industrial park for accommodating cashew nuts processing plants to add value to the cash crop, an official said on Wednesday. Francis Alfred, the CBT Director General, said the industrial park estimated to cost 116 million U.S. dollars will be built in Nanyamba district in Mtwara region in an area covering 1,500 hectares. “Plants to be built in the industrial park will have a total capacity of processing 300,000 metric tons of cashew-nut annually,†Alfred told Xinhua in a telephone interview. He was reacting when asked by Xinhua what measures CBT was taking following a recent appeal by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa to cashew nuts growers to process the crop locally in order to add value before they sold it to international markets. Alfred said CBT in collaboration with the government was in the process of finding investors for the development of the industrial park. He said the industrial park will also be used to establish plants for making other cashew by-products and plants for processing sesame. “Our target is to process 60 percent of produced cashew nuts by 2025/2026,†said Alfred. Tanzania produced 400,000 metric tons of cashew nuts in the 2022/2023 period, but CBT plans to increase production of the crop to 700,000 metric tons in the 2025/2026 period.