Moussa Baldé, the Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovations, chaired yesterday, in Saly-Portudal, on behalf of the Prime Minister, the opening of the 17th annual cashew conference. The theme chosen was ''Sustainability of the African cashew industry. Evaluate the path traveled and look to the future. During the conference, an update was taken on African cashew production and the performances recorded at the global level. Very revealing statistics, Côte d'Ivoire stands out with a production of 1,220,000 tonnes of cashew with the rank of 2nd exporter of the product. This production is sold in its raw state between 80 and 90% on the market. The meeting made it possible to highlight the strong points and weak points around the production and processing of cashew nuts at the regional and continental level. According to the Minister of Higher Education, the opening of the 17th annual conference was held in the presence of Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development of Côte d'Ivoire. He pointed out the non-fortuitous nature of the choice of Senegal because the country of Téranga had set up, a few years ago, the Cashew Inter-Profession. According to him, Côte d'Ivoire has made enormous leaps in matters of cashew production and management. He stressed that that of Senegal had not yet reached 100,000 tonnes. His wish was to see cashew production boosted in all the countries of the sub-region and the opening of healthy competition. He praised the 100,000 jobs created in Senegal. The Ivorian Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development called for the consolidation and strengthening of achievements for the proper promotion of the cashew nut. He recalled the ranks occupied by Côte d'Ivoire, the leading cashew nut producer and second almond exporting country in the world. According to him, the Ivorian Minister of State expressed the wish not to see the countries of the sub-region alone in the stated desire to make progress. Its intention is to push Senegal to make efforts to follow the path and journey of Côte d'Ivoire for increased production and promotion of cashew processing. According to him, the cashew nut must be able to feed its people in Africa because if the desire to produce on a large scale is displayed, it must be followed by a desire to carry out processing in large quantities, a plus. value for producers to enable them to have substantial gains. Consequently, these arrangements made, according to him,