Polish aid

Implementing entity:

Cultures of the World Foundation

Co-financing:

PLN 489,925

 

Like tea, coffee or sugar, cashew nuts are cultivated in Tanzania on an industrial scale However, only 15% of crops are processed locally. Most nuts are exported to India, where they are treated and sold, mostly to European markets. The project was aimed mostly at farmers cultivating cashew nuts and assumed that a suitable processing infrastructure would be constructed to carry out the entire production process on the spot, thus generating the added value locally. A local association of small producers of nuts acquired a storage facility where unpeeled nuts can be kept all year round, as well as the space and tools needed to process them, such as a drying machine and steam boilers. The infrastructure is also used by members of other producer groups from nearby villages that cooperate with the association. An information campaign was carried out on the opportunities for employment in cashew nuts processing and the validity of increasing the prodictivity and competitiveness of local producer groups versus larger entities. Considerable emphasis was put on vocational activation of women. Local producers have been trained on requirements which must be met by processed cashew fruits to meet EU standards and be sold on the European market. Interest in importing processed nuts from Tanzania has been shown by Polish companies, as Tanzanian cashews have the best quality – they are the largest, sweetest and whitest, and their price is competitive compared to products from Brazil, Vietnam or India. The project contributed to increasing the productivity and competitiveness, and thus the scale, of small processing in rural areas.