COMPETITIVENESS OF NIGERIAN CASHEW NUTS EXPORTS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET

In Nigeria, cashew is an important contributor to the Gross Domestic product (GDP) and significant source of non-oil foreign exchange earnings for the country. Over the past three decades, cashew nut alone has contributed an annual average of US$253.25 million to GDP of the country. However, the industrial investment potentials of the export crop are yet to be fully exploited due to inadequate value addition to the primary product in the country which has constrained competitiveness of the export crop in the global market. Therefore, the paper evaluates the determinants of the competitiveness of the product in the world market. Secondary time series data covering 37 years from 1980 to 2017 were used. Augmented Dickey Fuller Statistics, autoregressive distributed lag model and error correction mechanism were used in the analysis of data. Significant determinants of competitiveness of exports of cashew nuts indicate the need for efficiency in spending on infrastructure development. This should be focused on improving electricity consumption from public supply for ease of processing. Transportation system, repair of old damaged roads and building of new ones should link village to village and village to industrial centres, as well as linking village to urban towns and ports for ease of logistics in moving the export product to the global market. 12.2% in the revealed competitive advantage of cashew is an incentive for increased production and of cashew nuts in the world