cashew nuts

The main reason to open a company is to improve my financial stage

“Any businessman should strive to improve lead and educate”

I build an empire by the end of my twenties and retired at the age of 35, there were lots of personal reasons for this, non included failing. Those days I believed that the sky wasn’t the limit we were conquering the universe.

I close down 2 companies that were turning over than around R22 million a year with potential of doubling in few years.

I was happy to be retired since and been ticking over.

I come upon this idea while sourcing new leads.

We all see hear the news around the world and the financial prediction for the future around the globe ,the outcome for Africa is worse ,lots of projects have been put on hold lots of money going to other important causes around the world and Africa is slipping back into the dark age .

When I was young it was drilled into me that “give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach him to fish to fish and you feed him for life”, I believe in this and know that I have the power to change others, give them an opportunity for a better life.

Changes come in small steps create work, better education, create opportunities so others can pick up on the trend and create more. 

After closing my companies I never wanted to get back into manufacturing again or even opening a company, these days I think I can help the poor and needy.

Africa in my eyes should be the hub of the world ,we have lots of raw material that is exported to the world super powers ,at very little benefit to the continent, we export cheap raw martial to import very expensive product or worse third quality and we are the dumping ground for big business worldwide

Lots of investment is made in Africa by lots of good people but they mostly feed the need not the dream, Africa cannot stand on its own by charity or hand out we need to create our own value added product and join the world financial market as a first grade player

When I was in business I always laughed at the IDC they get all this big money and invest it in big projects and that as history shows failed, they get egg on their face but don’t lose a cent out of pocket

I understand it easy to do one project than thousands of smaller ones, but if the done their jobs the failing should be smaller than the losses they take on one big project.

We all know it’s about man power but it’s time the investors wake up. I know of a few projects that good people had that didn’t materialize because of money.

Benin is the 10 the biggest exporter of cashew nut in the world

2018 around 180000 tons

2019 150000 ton 30000 tons less than the year before

If we work out that the price of cashew was 1 us dollar per kg 

If all were processed in the country the export would have been halt (due to waste of manufacturing)

So in 2019 for argument point would be 75000 tons but at $5 a kg

75000 ton times $5000 = $375,000,000

Compared to

150000 tons *$1000 =$150,000,000

That is a growth of $225 mil to the fiascoes

I am sure the money could be put to good use education health wealth

I know we don’t live in a bobble and it will take years to reach that position 

But I can only start small if I can raise the money needed.

I am working on a project to build a company that will process 5 ton of nuts a day .with the vision of building an industry in the long term to be able to process bigger volumes

In tendon I am working on a business plan to start a juice company to make apple cashew concentrate the picture is much bigger and we looking at on a small scale around 5 ton an hour around $20 million turn over annually at the moment it’s all waste  

Till now I tried to give a picture of the person behind the project

The reason to open these companies not in order of importance:

·      Money:

All business is about money and the bottom line.

By reducing the cost from the source .we will be competitive on the global market, and play a major part in implementing trends.

The growth of the market is expected to grow by 5% in the next few years the demand will increase so the supply has to be in place to take a share in the growing market

Cashew nut are very expensive I think it retails around $10- $25 a kg this makes it unaffordable to lots of people if the price can be reduced and more people eat it the demand will grow

We estimating break even in less than 24 months with a growth of 20 % per year there on

The plan is to process the nut, the real growth will be in the byproducts which are not tapped yet, with research we intend on tapping on the health and wellness market which I think is lagging worldwide

·      Create employment:

The company I see will start employing around 50 people from management to labors

At the moment the unemployment is high in Benin and especially in the farm lands the pay is law 

By opening the company I am creating permanent job on the premises and the farmers will need to employ more people with a growth of not less than 20% a year

The bigger our production the more the farmers will make and be able to pay better wages

·      Improve financial independence to the people in the project

We are planning to pay above market salaries; we want to build a team of people that will be able to run the plant on its own with intentions of building more companies around the farmlands

There are a lot of by product that can be produced, and given the opportunity we see lots of small companies mushrooming  and create 100s of extra jobs

·      Create proudly African product made in the continent

It’s time the world sees that we can produce world quality products from our owe resources, we should have our name competing in the global market

·      Help with reducing global warming 

At the moment we are exporting not less than 50% percent waste .a 20 foot container can lode around 20 ton that mean that we are carting waste around the world

In 2019 it took around 7500 container to ship the cashew, if using that example we would look at half around 3750, the same goes for the transporting of the nuts from the farms to the coast each trip is around 800km on way by halving that we looking at a lot of fumes and bad gasses

·      Save on resources

With price and availability of diesel just going up and running out its time to save on that source for as long as we can

·      Bring down the cost of product around the world

All the savings I see the price of cashew nut dropping and I don’t mean to the farmers

Africa is exporting around 57% of the cashew to the world better price will increase growth and the farmers will increase the production to keep with demand

·      Build a better name for the cashew nut industry

The cashew nut market has a bad name associated with it

Labor intense bordering slavery

Children forced to work in the factories

Sickness

First we are going to semi automate the process reducing the manpower from thousands to 50

It’s a big investment and companies in Asia and India won’t spend the money labor is seemed cheaper, in my humble opinion it’s a thing of the fast people want to earn more and want to have a life, see what’s happening all over Asia

Cashew nuts are very healthy and carry lots of minerals and vitamins

The oil of the cashew nut could be used for lots of products

·      Quality control

We intend producing product that will reach the world standards

By implementing controls and HASSB to satisfy any buyer or factory

The broken cashew will go into byproducts

·      Improve the country’s GDP add more taxes to the coppers

Like any other business we will pay taxes and hopefully it will be used to improve the life of the people

By making a value added product we increase the value of the products sold

·      RDP

This is where I see the biggie’s contribution, first we want to create and teach people the value of this nut, have more research into the health benefits, the more we learn the bigger the potential market will be

We see the RDP happening in two ways one will be on the premises and the second is to get the local university to research it 

·      Create business opportunities as a flow out

Like any businesses there are lots of opportunities for entrepreneurs to join the industry, we believe that by joint venture with individuals we can build a solid business

·      Reduce terrorism and fighting crime

By creating jobs we create pride and if we can give the people a reason to be pride they will reduce crime, people that are working don’t have time for terrorism 

And it will give them a reason to wake up in the morning