African Cashew Alliance and UNIDO’s 3ADI program promote small scale processing in Tanzania
From 26th to 30th November the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) jointly with Sunil Dahia, ACA Business Advisor, conducted a program on capacity-building for small scale farmer & processor groups and government agency representatives on the fundamentals of a competitive Tanzanian cashew industry. UNIDO agreed on this first cooperation with the African Cashew Alliance on 5 November, 2012. ACA and UNIDO aim to collaborate on mutual beneficial activities relating to the Promotion of Cashew Value Chain Development in Tanzania.
In a statement for UNIDO, Philip Lehne commented on the challenges in Tanzania that the African Agribusiness and Agro-industry Development initiative (3ADI) is working to address: “While small-scale processing in Tanzania does already exist, there are still obstacles preventing the sector to grow and generate value added. Difficulties include the access to the raw nuts, the finance of processing operations, lack of capacities in business and operational management and a business environment that is characterized by over-regulation, [lack of] transparency and poor infrastructure.”
“The value of this model is that it provides excellent opportunities f
or pro-poor development, on a village level, especially for women and the youth thus being in the best sense in the core of the UNIDO mandate of poverty reduction through productive activities,” remarked Mr. Lehne on the importance of implementing the project, which was initiated by former ACA President Idrisa Kilangi.
The objective of the program was to provide an introduction to the Global Cashew Industry, highlighting practical technical assistance to cashew nut processors on the community level that will support in proper quality cashew nut processing from quality selection of raw cashew nuts to packaging, as well as marketing according to international standards.
