The success of cashew nuts has led the various producing countries to take measures to protect the marketing of the product, which is now often the object of envy of numerous illegal marketing channels.
For a long time, cashew nut cultivation in Senegal remained marginal and was the prerogative of only a few producers, especially in the south regions of the country, Ziguinchor and Kolda in particular. However, the situation has changed with the arrival of SFL, which is working to formalize the actors by grouping them into cooperatives to better regulate the collection and sale of these nuts through the introduction of the warehouse receipt system.
Today, despite the challenge of 70,000 tons collected in the SEGABI zone and the fact that the 2022 campaign is good, there are still some 200 tons in the storage warehouses of the cooperatives. These nuts of good quality are preserved and managed by storage operators within the framework of the warehouse reception system (WRS). However, since the early 2000s, the prospects opened by export and strong foreign demand have boosted the sector.
WHAT IF TRANSFORMATION WAS THE SOLUTION
The problem of bank loans that existed 5 years ago with banks that were often reluctant to lend the necessary funds to producers due to price volatility is no longer a problem. The latter were struggling to have working capital to buy cashew nuts. However, the arrival of Shelter For Life, which helps producers access financing, has enabled them to scale up their operations.
More than ONE BILLION has been granted to several cooperatives by the financial institution PAMECAS under the supervision and guidance of SFL.
However, the clear improvement in production between 2015 and 2022 cannot be denied.
Today, if we call up the statistics, cashew nut cultivation is the activity of almost 22,500 households with a dependent population (total population of producing households) estimated at more than 352,000 individuals, essentially concentrated in the southern part of the country, between Kolda and Sédhiou. Due to the increasing numbers generated by the sector and the growing illegal trafficking of the product, the Senegalese government has taken measures to regulate the sector.