Benin Cashew Day: Three days of reflections to increase African cashew productivity

The 3rd edition of Benin Cashew Day was launched on Tuesday 22 February at the Congress Palace in Cotonou. Placed under the theme: “Strategic partnerships for an efficient cashew sector in Africa”, these meetings welcome cashew industry stakeholders from fifteen African countries. Initiated by the National Council of Cashew Exporters in Benin (Conec) in collaboration with the Interprofession of the Cashew Nut Sector (Ifa), this meeting aims to carry out reflections for the increase of productivity and processing of cashew nuts in Benin and in Africa.

Indeed, for three days, the cashew sector actors will reflect on the strategies to be put in place to establish institutional partnerships in order to promote the cashew sector in Africa. On the agenda were four discussion workshops: research and digitalisation in the cashew sector in Africa, improvement of the cashew processing environment in Africa, marketing of Benin’s cashew nuts and financing systems for cashew value chains, institutional partnerships.

Gaston Dossouhoui, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, in officially launching the event, invited participants to pay particular attention to the meeting so that, at the end of the discussions, concrete strategies could be proposed for the promotion of African cashew.

The president of Conec, Péniel Fanou, committed himself to working more with his members for the development of the cashew nut sector in Benin and Africa. For his part, the president of Ifa Benin, Herman Abionan, welcomed the actions of the new government to promote the cashew industry in Benin.

Furthermore, the cashew nut sector is one of the key high value-added sectors whose promotion is included in the Benin government’s action programme thanks to its strong capacity to contribute to job and income creation, its contribution to food and nutritional security and finally its great opportunity for export. Cashew nuts are Benin’s second most important agricultural export after cotton, providing 3% of the country’s gross national product (GNP), and 25% of its agricultural export earnings.