Cashew Export from Nigeria, Explained: Prices and Process

Nigeria is among the world’s largest raw cashew producers, and cashew is a major non-oil export earner. As with any export crop, the price a farmer or exporter gets is the global market price filtered through the dollar-to-naira rate.

How the naira price is formed

Raw cashew nuts are priced internationally in dollars per tonne, and the local price tracks that converted at the exchange rate, less the margins along the chain. Processors and exporters pay more for better-graded, lower-moisture nuts. A weaker naira lifts the local price even when the world price holds — the same dynamic as cocoa.

What drives the cashew price

• Global demand, especially from India and Vietnam, which process much of the world’s cashew.
• Nut quality — count per kilo, moisture and defect rate.
• The dollar and the naira, which set the local value of a world price.

Getting paid and converting

Export proceeds arrive in foreign currency and are repatriated through your bank; convert at the live USD to Naira rate, not a guess. For the documentation side of cross-border trade, see Form M and import/export documentation.