 | |
| Abbreviation | ACA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2006 [1] |
| Purpose | Growing Africa's cashew industry |
President | Otunba Tola Faseru [2] |
| Website | http://www.africancashewalliance.com/en |
The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the growth of the cashew industry in Africa. The ACA provides African cashew farmers with technical assistance and best practices, facilitates foreign investment, and promotes the development of processing cashews within Africa. [1]
As of August 2015, the ACA consists of nearly 200 companies involved with the African cashew industry with the majority being from Africa, notably the Ivory Coast, Benin, Ghana, the Gambia, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique. [1]
The organization runs the ACA Annual Cashew Conference and Expo every year in a different country to bolster communication amongst producers and support local cashew industries across Africa. [3]
The ACA introduced the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal in 2012 to enable certified cashew processors to prove that their products comply by international food safety laws. [4] The seal enables processors without the funds necessary for expensive food safety certifications to sell their products internationally. [3] The ACA certification seal complies with the US Food Safety Modernization Act and is recognized by major purchasing organizations, such as Kraft Foods, Intersnack, and Red River Foods. [1] [4] [5]
Growing demand for cashew nuts in Western Europe have led to increased production of cashews worldwide. As of 2022, cashews are primarily grown and harvested in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Africa produces 58% of the annual yield, with 44% of the production being concentrated in West Africa. In 2019, the Ivory Coast was the world's third largest producers of cashews (0.731 million tonnes) behind Vietnam (2.6 million tonnes) and India (0.786 million tonnes). From 2000 to 2019, 98% of African cashews were exported as raw nuts still within their shell instead of removed and ready for consumption. [6] These raw nuts are exported for processing in Vietnam and India where they can be de-shelled and sold for greater profit. [5] [7] [8] In 2018, extracted cashew nuts from India sold for three times higher than what cashew farmers in the Ivory Coast were paid for raw cashews. [6] An estimated 25% increase in Africa's cashew processing capabilities was projected to generate an additional $100 million in household income for cashew producers. [1] Cashew growers across Africa have responded by increasing their processing capabilities. [6]
The ACA promotes processing raw cashew nuts in Africa rather than exporting them to Vietnam and India. [9]
The economy of Benin remains underdeveloped and dependent on subsistence agriculture and cotton. Cotton accounts for 40% of Benin's GDP and roughly 80% of official export receipts. There is also production of textiles, palm products, and cocoa beans. Maize (corn), beans, rice, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, cassava, yams, and other various tubers are grown for local subsistence. Benin began producing a modest quantity of offshore oil in October 1982. Production ceased in recent years but exploration of new sites is ongoing.
The economy of Nigeria is a middle-income, mixed economy and emerging market with expanding manufacturing, financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors. It is ranked as the 53rd-largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP, the fourth largest in Africa and the 27th-largest in terms of purchasing power parity.
The economy of Mozambique is $14.396 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, and has developed since the end of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992). In 1987, the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms, which were designed to stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation was brought to single digits during the late 1990s, although it returned to double digits in 2000–02. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.
Cashew is the common name of a tropical evergreen tree Anacardium occidentale, in the family Anacardiaceae. It is native to South America and is the source of the cashew nut and the cashew apple, an accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as 14 metres, but the dwarf cultivars, growing up to 6 m (20 ft), prove more profitable, with earlier maturity and greater yields. The cashew nut is edible and is eaten on its own as a snack, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter. The nut is often simply called a 'cashew'.
Bình Phước is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the Southeast region of the country, to the north of Hồ Chí Minh City. It shares a border with Cambodia.
Agriculture is a major sector of the Nigerian economy, accounting for up to 35% of total employment in 2020. According to the FAO, agriculture remains the foundation of the Nigerian economy, providing livelihood for most Nigerians and generating millions of jobs. Along with crude oil, Nigeria relies on the agricultural products it exports to generate most of its national revenue. The agricultural sector in Nigeria comprises four sub-sectors: crop production, livestock, forestry, and fishing.
Agriculture is the largest employment sector in Bangladesh, making up 14.2 percent of Bangladesh's GDP in 2017 and employing about 42.7 percent of the workforce. The performance of this sector has an overwhelming impact on major macroeconomic objectives like employment generation, poverty alleviation, human resources development, food security, and other economic and social forces. A plurality of Bangladeshis earn their living from agriculture. Due to a number of factors, Bangladesh's labour-intensive agriculture has achieved steady increases in food grain production despite the often unfavorable weather conditions. These include better flood control and irrigation, a generally more efficient use of fertilisers, as well as the establishment of better distribution and rural credit networks.
Benin is predominantly a rural society, and agriculture in Benin supports more than 70% of the population. Agriculture contributes around 35% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 80% of export income. While the Government of Benin (GOB) aims to diversify its agricultural production, Benin remains underdeveloped, and its economy is underpinned by subsistence agriculture. Approximately 93% of total agricultural production goes into food production. The proportion of the population living in poverty is about 35.2%, with more rural households in poverty (38.4%) than urban households (29.8%). 36% of households depend solely upon agricultural (crop) production for income, and another 30% depend on crop production, livestock, or fishing for income.
Agriculture was the foundation of the economy in Ivory Coast and its main source of growth. In 1987 the agricultural sector contributed 35 percent of the country's GDP and 66 percent of its export revenues, provided employment for about two-thirds of the national work force, and generated substantial revenues despite the drop in coffee and cocoa prices. From 1965 to 1980, agricultural GDP grew by an average 4.6 percent per year. Growth of agricultural GDP from coffee, cocoa, and timber production, which totaled nearly 50 percent of Ivory Coast's export revenues, averaged 7 percent a year from 1965 to 1980.
The economy of Ivory Coast is stable and currently growing, in the aftermath of political instability in recent decades. The Ivory Coast's economy is largely market-based and depends heavily on the agricultural sector. Almost 70% of the Ivorian people are engaged in some form of agricultural activity. The economy grew 82% in the 1960s, reaching a peak growth of 360% in the 1970s, but this proved unsustainable and it shrank by 28% in the 1980s and a further 22% in the 1990s. This decline, coupled with high population growth, resulted in a steady fall in living standards. The gross national product per capita, now rising again, was about US$727 in 1996. It was substantially higher two decades before. Real GDP growth is expected to average 6.5% in 2024–25.
Blood cashews is the media term for a 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on cashew production in Vietnam, The Rehab Archipelago, which claimed human rights abuses in the use of people in drug-detention centres.
The Cashew Export Promotion Council of India or CEPC or CEPCI was established by the Government of India in 1955, with the active cooperation of the cashew industry with the object of promoting exports of cashew kernels and cashew nut shell liquid from India. It is headquartered in Mundakkal in the city of Kollam, Kerala. The Council serves as an intermediary between importers of cashew kernels and exporters who are members of the council. The council is also supposed to deal with any disputes on exports or imports arising on account of quality standards, breach of contractual obligations, etc. It undertakes numerous activities, such as organizing global buyer-seller meets, organizing studies on the nutritional aspects of cashew and providing support to cashew processors and exporters for improving infrastructure.
The Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation Limited or KSCDC is a model employer in the field of cashew industry mainly to protect the interest of workers and to provide maximum employment to its workers and to give statutory benefits like minimum wages, bonus, etc. prevailing in the cashew industry. It is headquartered in Kollam city, called "Cashew Capital of the World". The head office is situated at Cashew House, Mundakkal in Kollam City, Kerala. KSCDC was incorporated in July 1969 and started Commercial activities in the year 1971 as a company fully owned by the Government of Kerala. Corporation has now more than a turn over of Rs. 2.50 billion. A Central Export Promotion Council for Cashew, Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) is situated at Kollam city.
The Cashew business in Kollam is based in the eponymous city, which is known as the Cashew Capital of the World. Kollam is the largest processed cashew exporter in the world. As of 2011 there were more than 600 cashew processing units in the city. About 800,000 tonnes of raw cashews are imported to the city for processing every year. 80% of India's export quality cashew kernels were prepared in Kollam. Kollam has remained the cashew capital of the world since the 1930s.
Kollam or Quilon is an old seaport and a city on the Laccadive Sea coast in Kerala, India, on Ashtamudi Lake. The city remains notable as the ancient commercial capital of Kerala and the southwestern Indian coast, in addition to its fame as the "Cashew Capital of the World". The Kollam Municipal Corporation has the second largest budget in Kerala in terms of revenue and expenditure.
Tanzania is one of the largest cashew producers in Africa, with exports providing 10-15 percent of the country's foreign exchange. The country is the eighth-largest grower of cashew nut in the world and ranks fourth in Africa. The country provides 20% of Africa's cashew nut and only trails in production of Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, and Guinea-Bissau, according to figures released in 2012 by United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The country has been engaged in the production of the cash crop since before independence in the years 1960s however, poor regulation and lack of reliable payments to farmers have posed significant challenges to the Cashew Nut farming industry in Tanzania. Guinea-Bissau, a country a tenth of the area of Tanzania's, has a significantly greater yield.
Agriculture is the main part of Tanzania's economy. As of 2016, Tanzania had over 44 million hectares of arable land with only 33 percent of this amount in cultivation. Almost 70 percent of the rich population live in rural areas, and almost all of them are involved in the farming sector. Land is a vital asset in ensuring food security, and among the nine main food crops in Tanzania are maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, beans, cassava, potatoes, and bananas. The agricultural industry makes a large contribution to the country's foreign exchange earnings, with more than US$1 billion in earnings from cash crop exports.
Tanzania–Vietnam relations are bilateral relations between Tanzania and Vietnam. Vietnam and Tanzania set up diplomatic relations in 1965. Vietnam maintains an embassy in Dar es Salaam which is mandated to serve all of East Africa. Tanzania does not have an embassy in Vietnam, and the embassy in Beijing is accredited to Vietnam.
Guinea-Bissau–India relations refers to the international relations that exist between Guinea-Bissau and India. The embassy of India in Dakar, Senegal is concurrently accredited to Guinea-Bissau. India opened an Honorary Consulate in Bissau on 28 May 2010. Guinea-Bissau has no diplomatic mission in India.