ACA announces theme for the 17th ACA Cashew Conference and Expo
The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) has announced the theme for the 17th ACA Cashew Conference and Expo to be held in Dakar, Senegal.
This year’s Cashew Conference will focus on the theme, Sustaining the African Cashew Industry: Assessing the Journey so Far and Looking Forward.
This will be the fourth successive ACA Conference that will focus on the sustainability of the African cashew industry, indicating the ACA’s commitment to the sustainability agenda.
The 2020 Conference was on the theme, building a viable cashew value chain to withstand market disruptions, where the need to process closer to origin came up strongly following the outbreak of COVID-19. In 2021, the discussion was moved further to focus on building a sustainable cashew supply chain for the future. Still on sustainability, last year, the ACA conference looked at, strengthening sustainable kernel and by-products marketing in the African cashew industry, where the need to encourage local processing in Africa was once again reiterated.
According to the Managing Director of the ACA, Ernest Mintah, this year’s Conference theme was arrived at after extensive engagement and consultation with industry players and stakeholders of the cashew industry.
“After three (3) successive years of heightened attention and discussions on sustainability, we believe the time has come for the industry to sit back and reflect on the many discussions and commitments that have been made, analyse the successes and setbacks, and strategize for the future,” Mr Mintah, explained.
“For us at ACA, this is necessary because it is only by reflecting on all the discussions and commitments from the past that we will be able to measure where we are as an industry and plan for the future. We remain committed as an industry alliance to the sustainability agenda of the African cashew industry,” he added.
Head of Communication and Member Services of the ACA, Blessing Okam, said the ACA is putting together several forums and workshops on important topics related to the conference theme.
“At the end of the conference, we want to have a better understanding of where we are as an industry in terms of our sustainability journey. There will be a series of presentations, thematic forum discussions and workshops on the theme and other related topics. The ACA Expo and Business to Business meetings will take place as usual,” she said.
“Preparations are already ongoing, and we are having several engagements with our partners and major industry players, especially in Senegal, the host nation to ensure a successful Conference in September.
The 17th ACA Cashew Conference and Expo will be held from Monday 18th to Thursday 21st September 2023 in Dakar, Senegal. This year’s Conference will be held in partnership with the Interprofession Cajou du Sénégal (ICAS) and the Senegalese Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry with support from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Market Oriented Value Chains for jobs and growth in the ECOWAS region (GIZ/MOVE), formerly GIZ/ComCashew.
