Revitalising an industry that had all but closed down with the loss of 5000 jobs in a poor country is no mean feat. Add to that the need to embed a culture and willingness to meet global safety and quality standards for international markets and you indeed have a challenge.
Undeterred by the scale of the enterprise, a consortium of six Mozambique businesses began working on the three year project in late 2005. The BLCF provided £174,000 with the private sector committing double that sum to restore the country's reputation for producing some of the highest quality cashews in the world.
Cashews (caju in Portugese,) are known as a nut in the culinary sense but are in fact a single kidney shaped seed packed with nutritional proteins, fats and vitamins. Growing on small, fast growing, evergreen tropical trees, the edible kernel is encased by a hard shell.
The harvested nuts are dried in the sun for a few days and then delivered to a processing factory where they are steamed, shelled, dried, peeled, sorted and vacuum packed before going to market, whether that is local or the more profitable – but highly demanding –European export trade where Mozambican cashews are once again making a name for themselves.
By locating factories in rural areas, the 55,000 or so families who grow and harvest cashews can sell direct, eliminating middle man costs and creating added value – and improved rural income – opportunities.
The old idea of large plants with mechanical processing was abandoned – the irregular shape and hardness of the shell, coupled with the brittleness of the kernel meant damage to cashews was frequent and value was lost.
Working with a local cashew expert, Miranda Caju - and its entrepreneurial owner Antonio Miranda - developed an innovative, simple, manual processing method, which – owing to its labour intensity – created more local jobs and incomes four times the national average.
Two cashew plants expanded to 11, employing 2264 workers receiving a free daily hot meal and subsidised health care.
The thousands of smallholder growers who supply the factories with kernels have seen their average incomes rise more than 20 per cent, with the project's factories paying a 20 per cent premium for quality cashews. These incomes will only increase as the factories reach full capacity and new ones come on line.
Each of the participating processors is also helping plant thousands of new cashew trees every year with the long-term aim of processors buying from 500 additional smallholder families a year.
The consortium has established quality parameters, introduced a quality testing and sampling programme, increased incentives for quality production and begun the adoption of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) as the baseline for future success. Immediate benefits include good manufacturing and hygiene training and improved facilities for workers.
As managing the quality of both raw and processed cashews is essential for the future of the industry's competitiveness in a global marketplace, the prompt action taken on any sub-standard production speeds up the process of diffusing quality management through the industry.
To promote industry cooperation and competitiveness, a cashew processors association has been established. Miranda Caju is leading by example by sharing access to the technical assistance it receives from TechnoServe and training other factory managers in the improved cashew production process.
To sustain working capital and finance the cashew replanting scheme, the consortium is investigating diversifying into groundnuts or peanuts, an important cash crop that has the added benefit of being able to fix nitrogen in the soil, improving soil quality.
Even though the project has not run its full course, the success of the model created by the consortium has lead to investigations into new added value products and diversification studies.
One of the by-products of cashew processing is the cashew nut shell liquid, which is used in the manufacture of materials that must be resistant to heat, friction, acids and caustic substances. Such products include: brake linings, clutch plates, special isolators, varnish and plastic materials. Cashew tree wood is also insect repellent and its bark is used in leather tanning; its gum can be used as an insect repellent glue; the kernel's papery seed coat can be used as cattle feed; and there is a compound in the cashew apple, which itself is a tasty fresh, juiced or preserved fruit containing more vitamin C than an orange.
For more information contact BLCF fund manager, the Emerging Markets Group at this address