Alliance wins USAID West Africa grant for access to finance initiative
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."
Bankers, investors, buyers and international cashew businessmen and women talked business at the ACA Annual Conference in Abidjan 2009.At a Business2Business forum during the event, participants were able to present their companies to the numerous prospective business partners in face-to-face meetings. More than 220 people from 25 countries used the conference as a networking and learning opportunity. Thematic workshops treated the key issues for the cashew industry in Africa, such as business planning and credit applications, post-harvest handling of raw cashew nuts and food safety in cashew processing. Field visits to a processing plant and the Abidjan port and cashew warehouses concluded the event.
Below, view a two minute video of the Cashew conference (please wait for the entire 4MB video to download):
India's CEPC Publishes Guidelines for Prevention of Halogen Taints in Cashews
December, 19th 2008
On several occasions, cashew importers have indicated the presence of chlorophenol, chloroanisole and other taints in cashew kernel shipments. In most cases they are due to external sources through the presence of organohalogens.
The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India has published Guidelines for the pre-harvest, harvest, and post-harvest stages, including transportation, for suppliers of raw cashew nuts in India and elsewhere.
Persistence pays off for African cashew industry stakeholders
24 February 2009
$25
million grant to expand assistance to African cashew industry a culmination of
a year’s work of African Cashew Alliance and partners
The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation’s $25 million grant to help hundreds of thousands of
small cashew farmers in Africa was the culmination of over a year’s work. The
African Cashew Alliance provided comprehensive data on the industry that helped
the project’s lead grantee, GTZ, and partners show the foundation how and why
the project would help the industry succeed.
See
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release here.
Cashew News 
“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.”
ACAConf09EvareportFINAL 
