ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal Highlight: Tolaro Global
Launched in 2012, the ACA Seal Program was created to standardize and enhance the food safety, quality, and social/labor components of cashew processing on the African continent. To date, eight cashew processing factories from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Togo have earned the approval of the ACA Seal, and several more in the implementation phase of the program, hoping to become approved in the coming years.
The first cashew processing facility to achieve ACA Seal approval is located in Parakou, Benin. Tolaro Global was first awarded the ACA Seal in May of 2012, and has since been re-approved twice, in 2013 and 2014. As a company which only officially began processing cashews in December of 2011, Tolaro’s quick adherence to the tenets of the ACA Seal Program certainly demonstrates its commitment to follow the highest standards in its operations.
Since its inception, Tolaro has steadily increased its production year after year. Having processed 557 MT of raw cashew in its first year, Tolaro now expects to increase this figure five-fold during the 2015 season, amounting to 2,500 MT. The factory has also increased its staff from just under 400 employees in 2012 to its current 600, providing much-needed jobs for people from the surrounding community. Nearly 50% of these workers are women; however, of the company’s five executive-level managers, three are women. Tolaro’s intentional inclusion of women in its top management serves as a motivating force for more junior-level female employees to follow their ambitions and break the glass ceiling that has dominated the industry for so long.
Prior to subscribing to the ACA Seal Program, Tolaro had already begun implementing its own quality control programs, particularly in terms of hygiene and removal of foreign material from the processing areas. This dedication to quality was ultimately what drove the desire to become ACA Seal-certified. Facing the widespread perception that African cashews are of lower quality than their Indian and Vietnamese counterparts, Tolaro sought to defy this stereotype by attaining every quality standard it could.
Mr. Jace Rabe, Tolaro’s CEO, remarks that Tolaro “prides itself as a top-tier packer” that is competitive with every other facility in the world. “The ACA Seal has been a great foundational program to give us the confidence and ability to earn other internationally recognized certificates.”
While achieving ACA Seal approval is a momentous accomplishment, perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Tolaro has earned it three times. The ACA Seal Program is designed to be a benchmark for the cashew industry, setting the standards to which the best processors hold themselves. However, these standards are not always easy to achieve and are even more difficult to maintain.
For Tolaro, these standards are ingrained within the company’s fundamental framework. In fact, commitment to excellence is so integral to the company that it is painted upon the walls in the form of two mottos: “Each processed kernel is a step in the direction of the development of Africa” and “Our raison d’etre is to produce the best cashew kernel in the world.” Clearly, Tolaro supports the greater purpose of developing the cashew processing industry in Africa as a whole, rather than simply advancing itself. Therefore, the company’s Quality Control Manager and his team work ceaselessly to ensure that all quality control systems in place are functioning and adhering to the measures required by the ACA Seal Program.
The largest obstacle facing the company is the assumption that it operates in the same way as many other businesses in West Africa; that is, a business which serves the company’s leadership and largely disregards the contributions and needs of its subordinates. Rabe, originally hailing from the United States, indicates that Tolaro has worked very hard to be an exception to this model.
“We often say that we are neither a Beninese culture or an American culture company; we are a Tolaro culture company, taking the best from both cultures.” The company’s Director General, Mr. Serge Kponou, has been described as a natural leader who strives to be different and break the mold to change the industry. “You rarely find him in an office,” says Rabe, “You can just as easily find him in the kitchen serving the employee meals when the kitchen is short-staffed as in the grading section sorting cashews.”
This “Tolaro culture” is what sets this processor apart. While the company aims to grow and increase its capacity, its ultimate priority is to foster an environment of respect and trust while producing the best cashew kernels on the planet.
