President Ibrahim Traore lays Foundation Stone for Cashew processing plant in Burkina Faso.

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President of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, laid the foundation stone on Friday for a new cashew apple processing plant in Peni, near Bobo-Dioulasso. The facility, once completed, is expected to boost the country’s agricultural sector and promote local industrialisation.

Footage from the visit shows President Traore engaging with workers and project leaders, and viewing development plans before ceremonially laying the plant’s first stone. In his address, the president emphasised the need for more processing facilities, citing the country’s vast untapped potential.

“We only have 5,000 tonnes of processing capacity, but we need to reach 2 million tonnes. So we should soon be able to export all these products,” Traore stated.

The facility will have the capacity to process 5,000 tonnes of cashew fruit annually and is projected to create 112 direct jobs and over 1,000 indirect ones. Burkina Faso currently produces an average of 200,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts per year, with much of the fruit left unprocessed.

Clement Attiou, Managing Director of the Agro-Pastoral and Fisheries Council, explained the strategic rationale behind the location in Peni. “The choice of Peni is very strategic... halfway between Bobo and Banfora, which are key cashew production zones. We're going to set up women-led cooperatives to collect the nuts and the plant will invest nearly 500 million CFA francs each year to purchase apples from local producers,” he said.

The construction comes just eight days after Burkina Faso lifted its ban on the export of raw cashew nuts, marking a renewed push for value-added production within national borders.