Algerian cashew processor Anacard’Or plans to build three modern processing plants in Tanzania, starting with a facility in Masasi, Mtwara region, in a joint venture that puts Tanzanian entrepreneurship at the center of the country’s push to capture more value from its booming cashew harvest.
The Tanzanian Embassy in Algiers announced the project on August 20, tying it to Dodoma’s strategy of expanding local processing in a sector still dominated by raw exports.
“It is the government’s intention to ensure that investments in shelling factories increase in the country to add more value to this crop before it is exported and to reduce the sale of unshelled cashew nuts,” said Tanzanian Ambassador to Algeria, H.E. Mobhare Matinyi.
Anacard’Or Chief Executive Walid Dib said the Masasi plant will run on modern Vietnamese machinery and is being built through a new local partnership.
“Tanzanian cashew nuts are of exceptional quality and we have decided to build three factories, starting with one in Masasi, Mtwara region, which will use modern machinery from Vietnam,” Dib said.
He is finalizing registration of the first company, Kilimanjaro Nuts Limited, with a local partner, a structure giving Tanzanian entrepreneurs direct equity rather than positioning the country purely as a raw-material supplier.
Ambassador Matinyi congratulated Dib on the investment and pledged government cooperation, framing the project as a source of jobs, revenue, skills transfer and foreign currency for Tanzania.
Dib’s existing trade volumes underscore the scale he’s already operating at.
“I received six containers last month; right now I have another six at the port of Oran, seven more are on the sea, and another seven are at the port of Dar es Salaam waiting to depart and each container carries 27 tons of cashew nuts,” he said.
This volume hints at the raw-material pipeline Anacard’Or is now looking to process locally rather than ship out unshelled.
The company plans to prepare Masasi warehouses and order equipment in September, with delivery from January 2027 alongside experts to train local workers. Investment figures and processing capacity haven’t been disclosed.
The timing aligns with Dodoma’s active courtship of processing investment. In March, Tanzania Cashew Board Director General Alfred Francis said the government was seeking more investors and building a favorable climate for private capital making Anacard’Or’s entry a test case as much as a standalone project.
The opportunity is substantial:
Tanzania aims to process 60% of its cashew crop locally by 2030, up from roughly 20,000 tons in 2025, against a harvest of nearly 528,000 tons in 2024/2025, per trade advisory N’kalô.
Dodoma is also backing agro-industrial parks, including one in Maranje, under development since 2023 with Arise, targeting 600,000 tons of combined processing capacity that could open the value chain to smaller local entrepreneurs alongside larger foreign-backed ventures.
Supply is no longer the constraint. Tanzania’s harvest has surged from 155,244 tons in 2015/2016 to 617,683 tons in 2025/2026, with the Cashew Board targeting 750,000 tons next season and 1 million by 2030.
The bottleneck has shifted entirely to processing capacity, a widening opportunity for entrepreneurs and investors racing to convert Tanzania’s raw cashew boom into higher-value, finished exports.
