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Success Story
Cashew processor
seeks global demand
and local profits
Businesswoman Gambles On Better Future
Photo: Projet Croissance Economique
Awa Beye (front left) and her employees
peel and sort cashew kernels.
My USAID advisor has been
with me since day one,
from when I apprenticed at
another cashew processing
company in Ziguinchor,
to when I started my own
business. I am still learning,”
said Awa Beve president of
the Beye Counda Economic
Interest Group.
Prices for cashews have hit a 10-year high in West Africa, and Awa
Beve, president of the Beye Counda Economic Interest Group, could
not be happier. In 2006, she took a gamble, left a textile business
and decided to try cashew nut processing in Senegal’s cashew-rich
Casamance region.
“I saw Indians coming to buy nuts to take back to their country
for processing, and thought why can’t I do that?” Beye said.
India is the top global producer of cashews, as well as the
number one destination for processing which involves cracking,
peeling, grading and packaging the nuts before they are shipped
for retail worldwide. While West Africa is one of the world’s
major exporters of raw nuts, with overall sales of about $300
million in 2007, experts say the region could earn up to 50%
more if nuts were processed locally.
With $4,500 in savings, Beve bought one machine to shell nuts,
and launched her business with two daughters and a cousin.
The only problem was that the cashew business was very different
from dyeing cotton and textiles, which she had done for 25 years. With
the help of a USAID Economic Growth Program trainer, she learned
the basics: don’t pluck nuts from the tree; the best nuts that get top
dollar have to ripen and fall; collect the nuts within 24 hours before
insects attack; separate the hot pink and juicy fruit from the nut so it
won’t dampen and discolor the nut; dry the nuts in the sun for up to
three days and don’t store the nuts in plastic, which traps moisture and
can ruin them.
“My USAID advisor has been with me since day one, from when I
apprenticed at another cashew processing company in Ziguinchor, to
when I started my own business. I am still learning,” Beve said.
Once her business was underway, USAID bought Beve two more
machines worth more than $250 each. In two years, she increased
her production rate of shelled raw nuts four-fold. At the peak of the
harvest, up to 20 employees help her, earning about $130 a month.
USAID also helped negotiate Beve’s first contract with a Gambian
company that agreed to cover her up-front production costs, which
they deduct from her exports. She estimates selling about one ton of
processed cashews in 2007. Beve has made back her leap-of-faith
investment, doubling her funds to about $9,000.
Beve plans to continue her nut processing business and hopes it will
keep growing. “If there are people from Asia coming for our nuts, why
shouldn’t I do something if I am already here?” she said.
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