São Paulo – Usibras, Brazilian cashew nut processing plant, will start to operate a plant in Ghana, Africa, in the beginning of next year. The company is the largest nut processing group in Brazil and with the opening of the African unit should be one of the largest in the world, according to the president, Francisco Assis Neto. From Ghana, Usibras plans to export nuts to several regions, including Europe, the United States, Asia and Middle East.<\/p>\n
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The African unit will be in Prampram, in the Greater Accra region, and will process 40,000 tonnes of cashew nuts per year, according to Neto. The cashew will be purchased locally in the West Coast of Africa, which grows the fruit. “We chose Ghana because it is the safest country in the West Coast”, says the president. The plant, which will have a 30,000 square meters built-up area, started to be built in the end of last year.<\/p>\n
Currently Usibras has three processing units, two in Brazil – one in Aquiraz, in the state of Ceará and the other one in Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte – and one in the United States. The North American plant works with dried fruit and nuts, according to Neto. In Brazil, Usibras processes around 50,000 tonnes per year. The total capacity of the company in the country is 80,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n
Usibras is not working full throttle due to a shortage of cashew nuts in Brazil driven by a drought that affected the fruit crops. Thus, Usibras has been importing nuts from Africa to process them in its units and also to sell them to other plants in the country. The African nuts have also been exported to other Nations by Usibras, according to Neto.<\/p>\n
At the moment the company sells only 30% of the Brazilian production domestically. The rest is exported to over 40 countries, among them Australia, Japan, Latin American, European and Middle Eastern countries. The products are sold under the brand name Dunorte. Besides cashew nuts, Usibras also processes other products such as peanuts.<\/p>\n
Contact:<\/p>\n
Usibras
Website: http:\/\/www.usibras.com\/ingles\/
Telefone: +55 (85) 4006-8909<\/p>\n
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça<\/strong><\/p>\n