ETG Mozambique’s Innovative approach to Cashew Nuts Supply Chain Optimization

Feed the Future - a US Government Global Hunger & Food Security Initiative, along with Inova, partnered with ETG in Mozambique to co-invest in increasing the quantity and quality of cashew nut production by organizing producers into supplier clubs and facilitating access to spraying services.

A total of 69 Spray Service Providers / Aggregators across 5 districts in Mozambique signed a contract with ETG to participate in the project. Each one of these 69 SSP/Aggregators assists a group of producers, in total 1343 farmers, all members of ETG’s raw cashew nut supplier clubs.

ETG has adopted 3 tactics to stimulate this project and increase impact:

1) Formal Agreements in place:
Contracts were signed with spray service providers to create and manage raw cashew nut supplier clubs to ensure, through pre-agreements, quality production for ETG;

2) Structured approach
ETG provides technical assistance, transport and bags to spray services providers to aggregate and transport quality cashew to ETG facilities;

3) Aggregation points
ETG established aggregation points to collect / store the raw cashew aggregated by the spray service providers.

Our aim is to have access to a market system that values raw cashew nut quality standards in order to increase the value of the product. Simultaneously, we are creating opportunity for smallholder farmers to produce this quality product by facilitating access to high-value and reliable markets.

This concept will add value to customers on multiple levels. Spray Service Providers (SSP) and the Aggregators gained access to a larger number of cashew producers to sell their product, thus generating more income. The accessibility to chemical products to spray crops in return, adds value to the producer.

The producers not only have access to this service, but also benefit from increased volumes of quality cashew nuts produced, and accessibility to clubs to facilitate sales, ensuring fairer price opportunities. The tripartite agreement between ETG, SSP’s and producers not only resulted in increased volumes of quality cashew, but also created opportunities to expand the provision of services to other commodities.

This innovation improved procurement and quality control practices due to increased traceability. It is one of the many initiatives that ETG is focusing on to create sustainable impact across countries we operate in.