African Cashew Alliance

Communication and organization. Those were the no-nonsense priorities of the 75 stakeholders in West Africa’s cashew sector at the first country meeting of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) in Benin on September 13. Farmers, processors, traders, financial institutions and others from Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal and East Africa hashed out steps to improve the industry in Benin and the rest of the continent. Africa produces one-third of the world’s cashews but processes only a small percentage of them.

WATH/Accra is the secretariat for the ACA, which aims to increase Africa's production and profit by promoting the cashew sector from crop yield to volume of international consumption. As the Benin meeting showed, the Alliance is also building ties between Africa’s cashew players beyond national lines, enabling them to share information and resources.

“They gained confidence this is really going to happen,” said Cilia de Cock, advisor for the cashew sector in WATH/Accra’s export business development program. “The Alliance is not going to go away. It will be a strong voice for the industry.”

Morning presentations discussed best practices and issues in production, pricing, quality, policy reform, and processing. Over lunch and in the afternoon, participants eagerly engaged in roundtable discussions to assess Benin’s cashew industry’s achievements and barriers to growth. They also outlined strategies to overcome the constraints.

Benin is struggling with an unregulated supply of lower-quality nuts from Nigeria, which are mixed in with better kernels, damaging the reputation of Benin nuts and some suppliers. Participants also expressed concern that national pricing isn’t transparent and quizzed the minister of commerce representative about methods used to set the price for bulk raw cashews. Lack of information on current FOB or at-port pricing often leads to distrust between farmers and traders.

Participants finished the meeting with ideas to integrate in their own companies and a long “to-do” list for ACA. Participants from Nigeria and Senegal offered to host the next ACA country-level meetings.

“The ACA will work to create strong private and public cashew business bodies in each country to develop a workable and sustainable public-private partnership,” said Carlos Costa, president of the ACA and chairman of the Mozambique cashew association Aicaju.

ACA membership already spans every link in the industry chain. Producer organizations such as the West Africa-based Sustainable Tree Crop Program and processors like industry-leader AICAJU Nuts Processors Association of Mozambique have joined traders such as Dutch Global Trading BV and Singapore-based Olam International as well as large buyers, including U.S. Kraft Foods and Dutch conglomerate Royal Ahold.

USAID and other development agencies, such as SNV of the Netherlands, promote ACA because of its potential to create jobs and spur economies through expansion and the value-add potential of the cashew industry in Africa. USAID and other founding members have recently signed a memorandum of understanding, formalizing their commitment to the Alliance.

Presentations and Reports

 2006-09-13 ACA Meeting Cotonou Program EN 28/09/2006,10:28 314.50 Kb

 2006-09-13 ACA Meeting Cotonou Program FR 28/09/2006,10:28 315.00 Kb

 2006-09-13 ACA Presentation Benin 28/09/2006,10:41 378.00 Kb

 2006-09-13 Cashew Sector across Africa 28/09/2006,10:42 180.00 Kb

 2006-09-13 TechnoServe - ACA Benin 28/09/2006,10:42 453.50 Kb

 2006-09-13 ACA Benin - Kraft 28/09/2006,10:29 169.00 Kb

 2006-09-13 Benin Country Level Meeting Report EN 96.50 Kb

 2006-09-13 Benin Country Level Meeting Report FR 102.00 Kb