Dekel confirms departure of cashew infrastructure from China

West Africa-focussed agriculture company Dekel Agri-Vision updated the market on the development of its 10,000 tonnes per annum raw cashew nut processing project at Tiebissou in Côte d'Ivoire on Thursday.

The AIM-traded firm said the entire shipment from China, consisting of 32 containers of infrastructure equipment for the construction of the project, has now departed.

It said the shipment was expected to arrive at the port of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire in early July.

This shipment of infrastructure equipment from China followed the restart of the manufacture of milling equipment in Italy, which had been suspended for a number of weeks as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Together with groundworks continuing at the site in Tiebissou, with “minimal disruption”, Dekel said it still expected the mill to be commissioned by April 2021.

“The shipment of infrastructure equipment from China is another positive step towards the construction of our large-scale cashew processing operation at Tiebissou,” said executive director Lincoln Moore.

“There was undoubtedly going to be delays due to Covid-19, so we are pleased to see activity resuming in good time, not just in China but also in Italy where the mill equipment is being manufactured.

“I look forward to providing further updates on the project's progress as we focus on having the mill operational in the first half of 2021 and in the process, adding a second producing project and a second revenue stream to our portfolio.”

At 1209 BST, shares in Dekel Agri-Vision were up 1.82% at 2.24p.