The Ivory Coast will produce 600,000 tons of raw cashew nuts during the 2014-2015 campaign, which opens next February, according to information given on the 30th January by the Council of cotton and cashew nuts at the end of a workshop on the operationalization of the standby committees to monitor the marketing of cashew. The Ivorian authorities have indicated that they are expecting a production estimated at 600,000 tons. According to the Council of cotton and cashew nuts, 540,000 tons will be for export while 60,000 tons will be processed locally. For Côte d’Ivoire, the clear objective is to maintain its position as the leading African producerof the nut.The country had reached this rank after a record 2013-2014campaign with a production of 550,000tons of cashew nuts. For a decade ago, 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 tonnes, making it the world’s top exporter and second to India in overall production. In the north of the country, cotton and cashews are the only cash crops, so as some cashew growers have started to do well, others have piled in. Output has increased because new plantations planted in recent years are coming into production. The Ivory Coast, which represents 20% of world production, it now remains to meet the challenge of transforming the raw material by creating similar infrastructure that launched in Bouaké in October by the company Cashew Savannah which transform 20,000 tons per year.