Cashew expert calls for India – Africa collaboration

Cashew expert and President of Cashewinfo, Srivatsva Ganapathy, has called for a collaboration between Africa and India to increase the cashew processing fortunes of both parties.

He said this on a panel discussion at the 14th annual African Cashew Alliance (ACA) cashew conference on the topic, the impact of policies on processing.

According to him, Africa’s cashew industry has very great potentials whereas India has an already established processing sector and a collaboration between the two will be mutually beneficial.

He explained that such a collaboration will increase the income of actors of Africa’s cashew industry, especially local processors while also increasing India’s processing rate.

In a quick response to the call, Executive Director of the Consultative International Cashew Council (CICC), Andre Tandjekpon, said the inter- ministerial body in charge of cashew in Africa was ever willing and ready to collaborate with India, and any other country, institution and Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) interested in making the cashew industry viable.   

Many shared the view of imposing levies and taxes on exports of Raw Cashew Nuts from Africa to protect local processors from stiff competition from exporters.

Though he shared this view, Mr. Ganapathy, believed this should be done carefully, taking into consideration the interest of other actors of the industry, especially exporters and producers.

In this regard, he suggested taxes on exports of RCN could be in the form of fixed export taxes on the market, harmonized duties or declared duties in specific terms.

He believed these forms of taxes would, while protecting local processors, not have huge impacts on exporters.   

The ACA Cashew conference is an annual conference which brings onboard experts and industry players across the world to learn, share experiences, and address major issues concerning production, processing, and consumption of cashew in Africa and beyond.

This year’s cashew conference, the 14th edition, was originally scheduled to be hosted by Ghana but had to be held fully online due to the outbreak of COVID19.

The virtual conference started on Wednesday with an opening ceremony and a panel discussion and ends on Friday.  Participants of the conference connect on Zoom (ID: 935 2341 4110

Passcode: aca2020), FACEBOOK (African Cashew Alliance), YouTube (African Cashew Alliance), or on the official ACA website.