Many of our raw materials are grown and processed in Africa. These include macadamias and dried fruit from South Africa, dates and peanuts from North Africa, as well as cashews, mangoes, coffee and other items from Central and West Africa. That is why we have always had a very special relationship with this continent, which is practically on Europe’s doorstep.
We Europeans in particular therefore have a special responsibility, which we at Seeberger have always taken into account. With our business commitment, we want to contribute to the gradual improvement of living conditions for people in Africa so that they can build a future for themselves and their children. In recent years, we have specifically expanded our involvement in West Africa.
Today we would like to talk about cashews. Cashew trees have long been planted in many African countries in the south of the Sahel zone to stem the spread of the Sahara desert. The growing countries range from Tanzania in the east to Gambia in the west. The world’s largest harvest of raw cashew nuts is harvested in Côte d’Ivoire.
Previously, these raw nuts were shipped to India and Vietnam in Asia via commodity traders. Most of the added value was then generated in these countries.
It is relatively time-consuming and complicated to process the cashew nuts and obtain the white cashew kernel. In India and Vietnam, there is a traditional industry that not only processes raw cashew nuts from Asia, but also buys cheap raw goods from Africa.
It has therefore long been our aim to find suitable production partners for Seeberger in Africa. On the one hand, we can prevent unnecessary transportation from Africa to Asia and then from Asia back to Europe. On the other hand, we support our “farm-to-consumer” philosophy and, above all, we create added value locally in Africa.
We followed many attempts and they all failed for various reasons. For our part, we want to be a reliable partner for many years to come, but we also demand reliability. Continuity, quality, quantity availability and timing were the main reasons for this failure.
But we didn’t give up and have now succeeded in finding not just one, but several reliable production partners for cashews in Côte d’Ivoire. Only raw cashew nuts from their own country are processed there. The production factories are certified and offer their employees a safe workplace all year round. Fair wages are paid and there are various service and security benefits. These range from a safe shuttle to work for shift workers to childcare, free meals, a company doctor, union representation and much more. We were also able to define specific measures to achieve Seeberger’s very special quality standard.
The Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, M. Patrick Achy, spoke at the opening ceremony of one of these new modern factories:
“The agricultural transformation of the Ivory Coast is key and will create more jobs, a better education, more health and will create a better future for the whole country and for Africa…”
In addition to cashews, we are also involved in the countries of West and East Africa with coconut chips, mangoes, coffee and other items.
We at Seeberger are very proud that we can make a strong contribution to this transformation with our reliable and continuous direct business.
