Robust lands $20M debt facility to build cashew plant in Côte d’Ivoire
What's the deal? Robust InternationalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has secured a $20 million debt facility to finance a greenfield cashew nut processing plant in Côte d’Ivoire. GuarantCoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG)Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, arranged the deal with SymbioticsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, providing a 100% payment default guarantee of up to $23 million.
How it's structured: The facility combines funding from institutional investor M&G InvestmentsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — backed by the GuarantCo guarantee — with uncovered funding from impact funds advised by Symbiotics Asset Management. A Symbiotics-arranged vehicle issued the notes, with M&GDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → subscribing the covered tranche in full.
What's the endgame? The money funds a plant in Toumodi with 15,000MT/year capacity, plus aggregation warehouses in Bouaké and Toumodi. The added storage is expected to strengthen seasonal procurement and cut Robust's reliance on leased warehousing.
Why now? Côte d’Ivoire is the world's largest cashew producer but processes only around 30% of its output locally, held back by limited capacity, storage, and financing. The deal supports government targets to process 50% of cashews by 2030.
The impact: The project is forecast to source cashews from about 1,500 smallholder farmers and add $79.2 million in export revenue. It is also expected to create 510 jobs, with women taking 40% of short-term and 80% of long-term roles.
Market expansion: The transaction is the partners' second deal with Robust in 2026, following a similar cashew-processing agreement in Nigeria, and their second in Côte d’Ivoire's cashew industry after a 2025 deal with another producer.
"This Côte d’Ivoire transaction builds on the established precedent set by our earlier Robust deal in Nigeria," said Dave Chalila, head of Africa investments at GuarantCo. He added that replicating the structure "materially reduce[s] execution and delivery risks."
The signal: The deal shows how development finance guarantees can pull private institutional capital into agro-industrial projects in markets where investors typically hesitate — and points to a repeatable model as GuarantCo, Symbiotics, and M&G expand cashew financing across West Africa.
Read more: Farmers Review Africa
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
