Cashew Zanzibar
CASHING IN ON OUR CASHEWS Tanzania is one of the biggest producers of cashews in Africa yet with around 90 per cent of the crop exported in its low-priced, raw form for processing and retailing abroad much of the lucrative revenue potential crop escapes the country. However, with its seeds (yes, cashews are seed, not a nut) grown in the rich soil around Mtwara and shelled and roasted at a processing plant on Zanzibar Island, Tanzanian brand More Than Cashews has built an inclusive value chain. Co-founder Fahad Awadh reveals why the company’s single origin products benefit local farmers, the country, the planet and anyone lucky enough to taste the naturally delicious results.
F
ahad Awadh is nuts about cashews and, yes, he does know they are actually seeds. In fact, there is very little he does not know about them. His research ahead of setting up YYTZ Agro-Processing, a fully automated cashew processing plant in Zanzibar, was exhaustive. The most shocking fact the company’s chief cashew officer and co-founder unearthed was that despite Tanzania being the fourth largest producer of cashews in the world, 90 per cent of its product is exported – “straight from the trees”, as Awadh puts it – to countries such as Vietnam and India with the final roasted and ready-to-eat version reaching a European and US market often unaware they are munching on Tanzanian cashews. “The situation was there was no idea of the true origin of the
had to address this opaque supply chain if I wanted to appeal to discerning, millennial customers in European and US markets to whom traceability is important. They want to know where the product came from and they want to know it was ethically sourced and the producer was well looked after.” Awadh knows exactly where his cashews in his More Than Cashew range come from. He’s built the business around a group of smallholder farmers and women’s groups in the Mtwara region. They get a secure market to sell at best prices as well as YYTZ-provided training on food safety, budgeting and good agricultural practices while Awadh gets some of the best cashews in the country. Customers get to trace the connection from farm to packet thanks to an ingenious bit of
cashews,’ says Awadh. “I knew I
technology, the first of its kind in
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