Seeking to improve the competitiveness of the sectors, the African Cashew Alliance, the Global Shea Alliance, ECOWAS and the International Trade Centre have begun developing a road map to collaborate after meeting in Accra, Ghana.

 

“This is just the start,” said Alfred Braimah, director of the ECOWAS private sector office. “We are formalizing our relationships and are here to determine where we want to go and how we can get there together delivering significant value to ECOWAS citizens.”

 

More than 50 stakeholders, including the leadership of the two alliances, discussed core issues affecting the value chains during the two-day meeting. Major international players in both sectors, including Wilmar and Olam, The Body Shop and Naasakle, participated, too, demonstrating that ECOWAS is heeding calls to more fully involve the private sector in economic development initiatives, stakeholders said.

 

 

The meetings are informing the ECOWAS Initiative for Export Promotion and Enterprise Competitiveness for Trade, known by the acronym ExPECT. The program’s ultimate goals are to improve the competitiveness of lead value chains and build capacities and skills for regional and global market competition.

 

“There has always been a good collaboration between ECOWAS and the USAID Trade Hub,” said Philippe Tokpanou of the ExPECT program. “We want to bring it to the level of these export-ready companies.”

 

The alliances connections to hundreds of companies across the region and around the world give them significant importance to ECOWAS efforts to drive economic development. In return, ECOWAS can give additional weight to the alliances’ efforts to affect national and regional policies that affect the sectors. ECOWAS can also mobilize resources to sustain the alliances’ work. 

 

“This is a very rewarding initiative,” said Eugenia Akuete, president of the Global Shea Alliance executive committee and CEO and founder of Naasakle, a shea products company in Ghana. “I am confident that we will together be able to achieve our common goals, impact women at the grassroots level and build a strong shea industry.” 

 

The issues affecting the sectors may appear different – while both are tree crops, the uses differ in important regards. The use of shea in food products is much less visible than cashew nuts, which are popularly consumed around the world, and shea is also used in natural cosmetics popular among consumers. Cashew byproducts are as varied as fluid for mechanical uses, cashew fruit juice and a meat substitute made with cashew fruit pulp.

 

Yet, they are similar, too, USAID Trade Hub Director Vanessa Adams told participants.

 

“Very rarely do we talk about both sectors at the same time but there is a lot of overlap,” Adams said. “These sectors involve multiple stakeholders and different markets. Yet, being competitive is not sufficient – you have to be competitive and have meaning to your customers and ensure that your product is safe and partner with your buyers. This is a new mindset.”

 

“The alliance with ECOWAS is very important for us because it is a recognition of what the ACA and GSA have done,” said Georgette Taraff of Nad & Co., a cashew processing company in Benin. “The alliance can become our advocate to government on the issues we are facing.”

 

Transport, access to finance and trade policy are just a few of the areas where companies in both sectors share common concerns, stakeholders said. 

 

Judson Welsh, a finance advisor to the USAID Trade Hub, presented a strategic shift in helping companies obtain finance that has seen cashew companies in Nigeria source raw cashew nuts – and created hundreds of jobs, mainly for young women. The approach is achieving similar results in shea, he told participants.

 

The reduction of transport costs – another issue for farmers, producers and investors in both sectors – would immediately mean higher prices for shea nuts and cashew nuts in rural villages – with enormous positive impacts on local economies.

 

In 2010, a USAID Trade Hub study showed that increasing sales of shea nuts and raw cashew nuts had significant multiplier effects on local economies, too. 

 

It is not the first time the alliances are collaborating: they have previously worked together at international trade shows and frequently discuss issues of common concern.

 

But the ACA is the more established of the two. Initiated in 2006 with support from the USAID Trade Hub, it now has more than 125 members around the world, is a key implementing partner on the world’s largest cashew development project and has introduced a quality seal that industry stakeholders are anxious to adopt.

 

The GSA was established in October 2010 but not formally launched until the annual industry conference, held this year in Ghana, in April. It has quickly established itself, however, and today has more than 125 dues-paying members.

 

But ECOWAS involvement is very important, Adams said.

 

“The alliances are effective at bringing in buyers and fostering information exchange, but solidifying an alliance is another thing altogether,” she said. “Becoming self-sustaining, this is the key challenge for any alliance anywhere, let alone one in Africa crossing several countries.”

 

Collaboration between the alliances and ECOWAS would have impacts beyond the targeted sectors, noted Roger Brou, the director of the USAID Trade Hub’s Business and Finance components.

 

“The alliances with ECOWAS support can address other competitive issues down the road – infrastructure and finance,” Brou said. “The alliances are proof that the alliance approach works – private sector partnership is effective.”