Anatrans and Jungle Nuts join the ACA Seal Family

On May 17, 2013, Anatrans became the third company to be officially certified under the ACA Quality and Sustainability Seal.  Anatrans, a medium-capacity factory located in Bobo, Burkina Faso, was assessed by ACA Seal Coordinator Peter Nyarko and Food Safety Expert Jim Giles.  Nyarko and Giles completed audits in the two critical disciplines: Food Safety and Social Compliance. Anatrans passed both audits with strong results, and is now the first African processor to achieve Seal status in 2013.

Interior of Anatrans in Burkina Faso

“From the word go, the motivation has been to deliver a finished product according to general standards, accepted by the principal clients. The ACA Seal allows us to achieve this. Moreover, the ACA Seal is particularly adapted to the cashew production, which makes the different criteria applicable and comprehensive”, remarked Boudo Auguste, Managing Director of Anatrans SARL.

Anantrans has over the years contributed to significant improvement in quality and production of the Burkinabe crop.

“Intersnack, Europe’s largest snack manufacturer, is of the opinion that ACA seal certification really makes a difference,” said Wim Schipper, Intersnack's Africa Sourcing Manager.  “This program, based on global food safety standards, is appreciated by our customers. Moreover, from a practical point of view, it is expected that quality issues between seller and buyer will be something from the past due to the ACA Seal and other certifications. Fair trade cashews from Burkina Faso were proudly presented as part of the new Jack Klijn sustainable nut assortment by Intersnack at the INC, the world’s largest nut industry event, which was held last May in Barcelona.”

This is a development Mr. Auguste hopes will continue, bringing more recognition to the company and to the African crop at large. “We expect that the exported kernel, accompanied by the ACA Seal sticker, will be distributed among our clients and will reinforce confidence in us as a processor, and more generally to African processed kernels. We hope that the clients will appreciate the seal in the sense that we will get more demand and better prices.”

Jungle Nuts is newest Seal representative from Kenya

The 4th member of the certified Seal family is Jungle Nuts, a cashew processor located in Thika, Kenya.  On the 30th of May, Peter Nyarko, Seal Coordinator, completed a final assessment of the company’s facility, which demonstrated good implementation of Quality and Labor standards as required by the ACA Seal program.

Jungle Nuts, owned by Patrick Wainaina, ACA Executive Committee member, is the first factory to be ACA Seal certified from its initial assessment, as well as the first Seal-approved company in East Africa.Peter Nyarko, Jim Giles, and Patrick Wainaina at Jungle Nuts

“The world is craving for safe and quality food,” remarked Mr. Wainaina. Africa is determined to do just that. Jungle just happened to be the pioneer in East Africa. We are now a model and we believe others are learning from us.”

This impressive feat demonstrates the company’s preparedness to be a global one within the shortest possible time. Patrick affirms, “Africa has become the largest producer and supplier of high grade cashew to the world. It is high time we package ourselves to market this great product. ACA has brought us all together through the ACA seal. In a few years time, this will be the ‘Sign of Quality’”.

He emphasized the need to do things right in order to achieve the company’s targets and recognized that the Seal is definitely one of the ways to reach this end. “Now that we are doing things right, we expect our running costs to go down. Already there are results. Enquiries have increased, obviously and importantly, at the right price! The challenge is not the supply,” Patrick stated.

The ACA is proud to welcome both Anatrans and Jungle Nuts into the growing Seal family, by leveraging the competitive advantage of African cashew nuts in the international market. Patrick certainly believes this is true, “Watch this space. Cashew will drive Africa to industrialization, just like what textiles did for Asia!”