African Cashew Alliance

African Cashew Alliance (ACA)

The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) is an industry body that promotes the African cashew sector from production to consumption. The ACA enables cashew stakeholders to capitalize on the sector’s potential for economic growth and employment. Its members include representatives along the complete value chain: producers, processors, traders and international buyers.

Fourteen African countries produce more than one-third of the world's cashews (est. 588,000 tons out of 1.5 million tons worldwide in 2006). Countries like Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau and Tanzania rank 4-6th of the biggest producers in the world.

Many African cashew producers have little access to information about ways to improve their yield, defend their crop against diseases, and maximize their incomes given changing market conditions. For years, African raw cashews have been exported to India and Vietnam where they are processed and shipped to Europe and the USA for consumption. But African processing capacity is growing: East Africa now processes 20% of its domestic production. West Africa is adding processing plants and will increase its current processing rate of 3% in the coming years. Cashew processing in Africa is an important means to create employment and increase economic activity.

ACA supports the cashew sector to increase farmer income, export of cashew kernels and economic growth of the cashew chain by:

linking actors across countries to share information and create synergies
staying in contact with companies and donors to increase funding of initiatives in the sector
leveraging knowledge and capacity
prioritizing and stimulating interventions to increase competitiveness
promoting the African cashew in the global marketplace

ACA's Secretariat is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the West Africa Trade Hub/Accra.

African Cashew Alliance Overview 46.45 Kb