African Cashew Alliance

The ACA Executive Committee has announced its decision to award the holding of the 2010 ACA Annual Conference to Mozambique! The event will take place in September 2010 in the country’s beautiful capital, Maputo. The dates will be announced by 1 February 2010.

The decision came after the Committee examined and rated three excellent proposals according to criteria published on the ACA website in November 2009.

On its way to becoming a global cashew powerhouse, Mozambique has seen a sharp increase in the processing of cashews over the past five years.  Today, the country’s industry processes the highest amount of cashew nuts in Africa. The ACA Conference will showcase how strategic alliances between farmers, processors, government and development agencies can realize quick wins for the African cashew sector. Business2business meetings will match potential partners in individual meetings, including investors, buyers, service suppliers and traders of raw and processed cashew. The Conference program will feature visits to world-class processing facilities as well as offers for trips to beautiful beach resorts and safari excursions in one of the many breathtaking National Parks in the region (Mozambique has a number of National Parks and the world-famous Kruger National Park is a 90 minute drive from Maputo).

Mark your calendars, bring your families and see you in Maputo!

In collaboration with the African Cashew Initiative and the Benin Ministry of Agriculture, the ACA organized a workshop to help cashew industry stakeholder prepare for the next cashew season (February - June) and elect the ACA National Committee for Benin. Almost 100 cashew producers, buyers, processors, exporters, and service providers formulated priorities for the 2010 cashew season and presented recommendations on improving the sector to the newly elected national committee.

view report on workshop here Atelier ACA Cotonou 21-12-09 _report_ 74.43 Kb

More than 80 cashew sector stakeholders came togerther to share ideas and to network at the Ghana Cashew Day in Sunyani on 10 December 2009.

Researchers presented the latest trends in cashew cultivation and farmers engaged traders in a discussion on the market for cashew in Ghana and worldwide. The event was also an opportunity for ACA’s implementing partners of the African Cashew Initiative (ACi), GTZ, TechnoServe and FairMatchSupport to present their specific activities in the cashew value chain to the industry stakeholders. Farmers, processors, traders and service providers elected their representatives to the ACA National committee.

The Ministry of Agriculture's Cashew Development Project was elected National ACA Representative and the trading company, West African Markets Link (WAML) , Deputy National ACA Representative at the first working session of the committee. 

  view  report on the event here  Ghana Cashew Day Report _2_ jl 1.38 Mb

The African Cashew Alliance has received a $146,000 grant from USAID/West Africa to improve access to finance for cashew businesses in the region.

“This reflects how important the cashew sector is – and has the potential to become – to the economies of West Africa,” said ACA Manager Christian Dahm. “Access to finance is a critical constraint to businesses across West Africa. With this support from USAID/West Africa, we will be able to tackle the problem aggressively.”

The grant will help the ACA upgrade the management and operations of cashew businesses in the region; market the viability of the cashew industry to finance institutions in order to promote investment; and, assess the policy environment and required investment incentives.

"Access to finance remains a critical obstacle in the cashew industry across Africa," said ACA President Carlos Costa. "We are very pleased that our strategic approaches are winning the support of key development partners like USAID West Africa and we are grateful for their support."