Sector · 01
Cashew & Agribusiness
The world's cashew engine — exporting raw, importing the value.
Why it matters
Cashew is roughly 90% of Guinea-Bissau's export earnings, close to a fifth of GDP, and income for around two-thirds of households.
The country is one of the largest raw cashew exporters on earth, with well-regarded nut quality (kernel out-turn ratios of 52–56). Yet under a tenth is processed at home — the rest leaves as raw nuts to be shelled, roasted and packaged elsewhere, where the margin lives.
The opportunity
- Industrial and SME shelling and roasting capacity — turning raw RCN into export-grade kernels on Bissau-Guinean soil.
- By-product valorisation: cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL), cashew apple juice, spirits and animal feed — most currently wasted.
- Aggregation, storage and traceable supply chains linking ~650,000 producers to buyers.
- Diversification crops the same logistics can carry: rice (import-substitution), tropical fruit, fish-feed inputs.
What's already here
A national cashew strategy under Terra Ranka, a producer base of hundreds of thousands of farms, and processing units already built — most idle for want of competitiveness and working capital. The gap is capital, power and management, not raw material.
Indicative incentives
Rates and scope to be confirmed against the current Investment Code. Indicative only.
Talk to the desk
Bring this sector to the investor desk.
Named sector officer: [sector officer, agribusiness].