Cashewloans West-Africa

Perspective for thousands of farmers in West-Africa

Invest in the value chain of Organic and Fairtrade cashews. Through your involvement, African cashew farmers and their families get a fair price for the harvest! In addition, local cashew processing plants boost the African economy, a fair way to fight poverty and offer hope.

‘I believe in sustainable development. Putting this into practice is a challenge. Doing the right thing by doing good. Led, dependent, in obedience. I listen to the quiet voice speaking to my heart.’ – Gerard Klijn, founder of Nuts2 BV.

Context
Africa is the world’s dominant growing region of cashews. Unfortunately, many of the cashews that grow here are not processed locally. About 90% of the African harvest is shipped to Asia for processing. For many years, Asian traders visited farmers to buy (part of) the crop, paying the lowest possible price for it, logically, without guaranteeing that they would be there to buy again the following year.

With this uncertainty, the question is whether a farmer dares to invest in himself and his plantation! Absolutely not! That has been our experience over the past 30 years. The combination of low prices, the uncertainty of long-term demand and the lack of local value-adding works powerfully to the disadvantage of the African farmer and, of course, the African economy. Change is needed! And change has been going on for the past years, through Nuts2’s work with its local cashew processing companies and external cashew partners in Africa! Will you become part of this change?

Crop finance
Farmers sell their cashews to the processing factories and are paid directly upon delivery of their crops. The factories in Benin, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau purchase their annual needed processing volumes in literally three months, which are then processed locally during the following 12 months, offering jobs to more than 3,000 employees, primarily women. After processing, the nuts are sold on the international market with a strong focus on Europe and America.

Crop financing is of great importance. With sufficient crop financing available, factories can source more nuts, benefiting more farmers and farming families with fair prices. More than 8,000 farmers are connected to the factories with which Nuts2 operates in Africa. More than 8,000 farmers are now connected to the factories with which Nuts2 operates in Africa.

Focus on risk management and sustainability
Financing in Africa is often more expensive than finance available in Europe or the USA. Banks typically offer only short-term finance, where long-term is, in fact, needed. Obviously, this is caused by the perceived risk of doing business in Africa. As a result, we, as Nuts2, invest much time and energy in the annual renewal of crop finance loans. Still, Nuts2 has worked successfully on making longer-term financing tools available. With its years of experience in Africa and the implementation of good monitoring and control systems, Nuts2 has reduced the risks to its financiers to an absolute minimum. As a result, multi-year loans are made available and have proven to be a much better business proposition for financing stock. Multi-year loans also give Nuts2 a more stable position towards farmers, offering the right financing proposition and flexibility and responding to market opportunities in a timely manner.

Nuts2 has been committed to integrating the farmer into the value chain since early 2002, linking farmers to local factories and the local factories to the international market. Risk management, in addition to developing a fair value chain, is, of course, crucial. After buying and processing, a critical risk is the final sale of all the shelled cashews coming out of the factories. For that, Nuts2 has a Dutch trading company that serves its global customers with the tastiest African cashew kernels.

Impact
The factories not only processes the nuts, but also arranges, for example, that farmers are trained to grow better nuts, invest in beehives to improve yields, etc. Nuts2 BV in the Netherlands, by guaranteeing the purchase of all shelled cashew nuts, provides “peace and security” for all partners in the value chain. A well-organized chain ultimately determines success! After all, flourishing factories offer perspective to both employees and connected farmers, but also service companies that offer services to the factories and, of course, to the customers of the shelled cashews!

In 2002, it started with a small factory with 55 employees. Now there are factories in 3 countries that source from 8,000 farmers and employ over 3,000 people. In other words, Nuts2 is an international company that actually does business locally. Besides its factories, Nuts2 in the Netherlands also trades nuts from other African factories. In this way, Africa is increasingly being put on the map! And in this way, both farmers and employees have a reliable source of income!

‘The money earned thanks to Anatrans allows me to better feed my family with quality food. I now have electricity in my yard, so we have electricity all the time.’ – Cashew farmer, 67 yrs.

‘I improved the working conditions of those who help me in the field. Sometimes we also need a little money to meet their needs and when that happens, I can easily help them and that motivates them to work well.’ – Cashew farmer, 49 yrs.

‘The expenses are high but the money has helped us to take care of the family and pay for the children’s school.’ – Cashew farmer, 40 yrs.

‘The income from cashew nuts allowed me to pay for oxen to help me in the field which has enhanced my productivity.’ – Cashew farmer, 51 yrs.

Invest!
Do you want to be part of this incredible story? You can! MissionInvest offers you the opportunity to participate as a committed financier. During 2019-2022, MissionInvest, through its network, has secured €7.5 Million in financing in the form of cashew loans for Nuts2 BV in the Netherlands. These loans enable Nuts2 BV to purchase raw cashews, finance processing and trade (www.nuts2.com). Success means growth, so since March 2023, we have launched a new round of crop financing to make up to €4 million available for procuring new crop cashews! These funds will enable us to purchase nuts from 3,600 farmers and provide jobs for 300 factory workers.

Due to AFM regulations, loans can only be made from €100,000. Tickets of 100K, 250K, 500K and 1000K are available with terms of 1, 3 or 5 years.

Your interest rate is between 3.5-6%, depending on ticket size and loan term. This project is worth your investment! You will get not only a nice financial return but also a huge social return!