ACA Contributes to International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Convention
Each year, the International Nut & Dried Fruit Council (INC) organizes a business convention which brings together close to 1,000 professionals from various nut value chains from around the world.
ACA has been a member of INC for several years, consistently attending and participating in this business convention. This year, the ACA Managing Director, Mr. Roger Brou, was officially invited to attend the three-day annual INC convention in Melbourne, Australia. During this event, Mr. Brou represented ACA by participating in several breakout sessions related to cashews, met with a number of key private sector players, and actively explored topics of interest to ACA and other potential business parties.
Mr. Brou attended a panel discussion led by Olam, Kraft Foods, Long Son Joint Stock Company and other key industry players and contributed greatly to the following discourse. Topics discussed were the current price stability and supply and demand of the cashew market, the use of efficient technology in cashew processing, and the nutritional and health benefits of cashew consumption.
He also had the opportunity to demonstrate the enormous potential of the African cashew sector to a number of global buyers, including buyers who already source their nuts from Africa. By introducing these stakeholders to the world of domestic African processing, Mr. Brou enabled new market linkages to form. This was a great platform because most of these buyers were not previously familiar with ACA. Through these meetings, a number of companies expressed strong interest in sourcing directly from Africa with the assistance of ACA.
Additionally, Mr. Brou engaged with several global cashew trading companies and American and European roasters to extend an invitation for them to attend the upcoming ACA Cashew Festival and Expo. The invitation was gratefully accepted and the companies expressed their desire to see topics of market concern such as cost of production, food safety, and sustainability. Mr. Brou promised to take these suggestions into consideration for the agenda, laying the groundwork for future global collaboration.
On the last day of the convention, Mr. Brou had the opportunity to contribute to a cashew round table discussion, composed mostly of senior officers from global companies. The panel discussed the importance of the nutritional benefits of cashew nuts and developed strategies to use health as a marketing tool to expand global cashew consumption. Ultimately, through his active participation in meetings and discussions, as well as engagement with major stakeholders and players of the global cashew value chain, Mr. Brou effectively placed the ACA on the map and gained recognition for the organization’s mission.
