Cashew processing in Africa: From captivity to quality: Analysis of main bottlenecks and the development of a cashew quality manual

Africa is the largest producer of raw cashew nuts: more than a third of the world production is produced in Africa, but cashew processing in Africa is marginal and fluctuating. In the 70s Mozambique was the second largest cashew processing country, after India, but currently only African exports of processed cashew kernels account for a mere 4% of all cashew exports; Brazil, India and Vietnam are the largest processed cashew exporters. This research intends to support cashew processors in the African countries. The objective of this research is to identify bottlenecks for cashew processing in Africa and support African cashew processors in their quality management effort to strengthen their market position. The bottlenecks are identified by analysing the value chain, the institutions in this chain and the quality management at the cashew processors. The value chain is described along the global value chain framework of Gereffi, Humphrey, & Sturgeon (2005), who describe value chains as supplier or buyer driven. As the cashew value chain is trader driven (Gibbon, 2001), the framework is adapted. The main bottleneck identified in the value chain is that African countries miss a lot of value because only the production phase is represented significantly in the African countries. Cashew processing is fragmented and thus cannot maintain their market position. The four layer model of Koppenjan and Groenewegen (2005) is used as a framework to analyse the institutional environment. The four layer model categorises institutions in four layers: actors, arrangements, formal rules and informal rules. The bottleneck in the institutional environment is that African cashew processors need to fulfil food safety standards (such as the standard of the British Retail Consortium) and social working conditions standard (such as the Social Accountability 8000) to strengthen their market position. If the cashew processors do not fulfil the quality standards, they are likely to lose buyers in Europe and the US. The Food quality management functions model is developed by Luning and Marcelis (2007) to identify functions that contribute to the realization of food quality. This model is applied to cashew processors to identify bottlenecks in their quality management. Cashew processors need to develop a food quality management system themselves to fulfil the BRC requirements. This requires extensive knowledge on hygiene and quality management, which is currently not available at cashew processors. The cashew processors need quality management support to fulfil quality requirements such as the BRC food standard. In western countries often support is given in the form of a quality management manual, provided by the government, or by company headquarters, but these are largely absent in Africa. The quality management support is therefore given the form of a quality manual. A Cashew quality manual is developed to support African cashew processors. The goal of the Cashew quality manual is two-fold: to support cashew processors to gain certification and to improve quality. The current Cashew quality manual is designed in compliance with the BRC standard on food safety and the SA8000 standard for social working conditions, but in time other standards can be added. An implementation plan is composed that explains how the manual should be implemented. In this plan attention is given to adapting the manual to practice, training the employees and management, implementing all procedures, checking the company and improving the company based on the results of the check. The Cashew quality manual enables the cashew processors to cooperate more intensely with each other and traders because standardized policies and procedures permit easier communication. In this way the African cashew processors move from a captive relation with the processed cashew trader to relational governance.

Subject

Cashew
Africa
Global Value Chain
Institutions
Quality management

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Embargo date

2010-11-19

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Campus only

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Student theses

Document type

master thesis

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