Value Chains and Gains - The ACA World Cashew Festival and Expo 2013

The ACA community truly comes alive for a couple of days each year at the annual ACA Cashew Conference.  This meeting of cashew industry representatives is now the largest cashew industry event in the world, and it brought together over 500 delegates from 36 different countries in Benin last year. For the past 7 years, conference participants have benefited from new business partnerships, information on the latest market trends and technology, and first-hand exposure to some of Africa’s most prominent farms and processing factories.  The conference is truly a microcosm of the dynamic cashew market, with international buyers, government representatives, farmers, exporters, and processors all convening to shape tomorrow’s cashew industry.  The conference also attracts foreign investment, by displaying the growing cashew industry in Africa.  An international buyer who attended the conference in 2012 captured this trend, stating “I’m very encouraged. This is the first time I’ve come to West Africa.  There are large investments and smaller investments – it’s happening now.  The food quality is building quickly.”

The 8^th annual conference event, titled ACA World Cashew Festival and Expo 2013 will be held in Accra on 16-19 September 2013 at the beautiful Moevenpick Ambassador Hotel.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Value Chain and Gains” and it will focus on how to leverage profit at all points along the cashew value chain. Farmers can explore new markets by taking up beekeeping or producing cashew-apple juice.  Processors can repurpose the raw cashew shell by selling it to producers of cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) or husk for dying clothes.  Even cashew breakages, the “challenge” of the cashew industry, could be used to produce gluten free milk as well as vegetarian bean and nut burgers. Both farmers and processors can increase their sales by meeting internationally recognized quality, food safety, and social/labor standards.

The program will explore this untapped potential in the cashew industry in a variety of settings.  At a Plenary Session, conference participants will hear from a range of experts. Food market expert, Kantha Shelke, will present on consumption patterns and the cashew, and will also address new potential markets for the cashew and by-products.  She will also discuss African consumption of cashew and how to best capitalize on specific consumer choices. The World Cashew forum will include five sessions: Farming, Processing Techniques and Technologies, Cashew and Sustainable Ideas, Finance and Investment and an ECOWAS workshop. Each session will dive into one of the aspects of the cashew value chain, giving participants a greater understanding of the market as a whole. Business2Business meetings offer participants the unique opportunity to meet with potential business partners in one-on-one meetings set up specifically by ACA.  The Expo 2013 will feature some of the cashew industry’s most prominent equipment and service providers, giving participants a chance to both meet representatives and see the newest technology first-hand.  Finally, conference participants will get the chance to visit one of Ghana’s very own processing factories, the Mim Cashew Factory.  They will see how the seeds of the cashew tree are transformed into high quality cashew nut kernels, from the farm to the market. Participants may also choose to visit the Wenchi Agricultural Research Station and Farmer’s Field, one of five agricultural research stations established in all the agro-ecological zones of Ghana. The station is under the management of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and visitors will get to see a vibrant testing ground of various cashew collections and other crops.

More than anything, participants in the ACA World Cashew Festival and Expo 2013 will leave with optimism and anticipation of what is to come in the African cashew market.