WILLAGRI
Established in 1980, Finnfund is a Finnish public investment fund that supports projects led by private institutions in developing countries. The company recently granted a $10 million loan to a Singaporean group, Valency International Trading, to set up a cashew nut processing plant in Côte d’Ivoire.
For the past 15 years, Valency International Trading, based in Singapore, has been trading in raw materials, particularly agricultural products. The company is one of the largest trading companies in Africa, Asia and Europe, covering 38 countries with a turnover of US$ 470 million (2019).
The company has been able to establish itself and build distribution channels from local operations, production or processing. Ansi Valency International Trading covers the entire value chain for the commodities it trades, including logistics.
Finnfund chose Côte d’Ivoire, a country with high potential for processing and value-added. Indeed, Côte d’Ivoire is the leading producer of cashew nuts but processes only one tenth of its production.
The loan will enable the construction of a processing plant and provide local employment and value-added for the exported commodities. The processing activity is carried out by factories located in India, Vietnam or Brazil and the processed product is shipped back to Europe.
The Conseil coton-anacarde, which manages the cashew tree chain, whose fruit includes the cashew apple (fruit) and the cashew nut (kernel), expects to open three processing plants in the near future. These sites will allow small rural producers to sell their stocks locally.
Source : Agence Ecofin