ACA Seal picks up momentum

Two members of the ACA Seal team, Peter Kojo Nyarko, Seal Coordinator and Jim Giles, Seal Advisor Food Safety and Quality Expert were in five African countries earlier this month on Seal-related business. The three week trip saw the pair launch the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal program in two factories, SOPELGUI Agro Industrie in Guinea and SITA S.A. in Cote D’Ivoire. The enrollment of these factories onto the Seal program further increases the number of factories in Africa that are implementing the ACA SEAL program to 12.Equitorial Nuts Management with ACA Seal Team in Kenya

The team later made follow ups to four other processors in East Africa, on the second leg of their trip, to ascertain the level of progress with regards to Seal implementation and procedures and the readiness of the factories for a SEAL approval assessment visit. Peter Nyarko remarked, “The Seal program is contributing to the addition of value to the cashew processed in Africa, with a blend of Business Support and Technical Assistance with regards to Food Safety and Quality. We are helping to ensure a viable cashew processing industry in Africa.” The four companies visited in East Africa were Jungle Nuts and Equatorial Nut Processor, Massasi high Quality Product and Southern Jumbo.

Export ready kernels from SITA will soon be ACA Seal certified. The ACA’s Quality and Sustainability Seal program continues to gain ground amongst the continent’s major and up-coming processors. The ACA Seal team has been embarking on an expansion drive and has plans to roll out the program to 40-50 factories as part of its core mandate over the next four years.  “This trip provided us with insight in terms of the direction the Seal program should take. We need to  increase the processor base of Seal implementing factories to ensure that we are capable in  meeting the increasing demand of Seal-approved cashews” Peter said.

The logical next step for seal approved factories is an ISO(International Organization for Standardization), BRC (British Retail Consortium), IFS (International Food Standard) or other international certification or social audit program like ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative). "We are looking for support from one of these agencies in strengthening the seal standard verification and for benchmarking of the ACA seal vis-à-vis the above-mentioned certifications. It will be a huge step for the ACA Seal, as it works towards becoming a premier quality indicator in the international market.", Peter asserts.