Supporting Beninese small food processors in product innovation and marketing

Cashew nuts are the second-most valuable export product from Benin. The crop has even more to offer: an often forgotten part of it is the cashew apple. Tons of this nutritious, vibrant fruit are being discarded as waste every year during harvest due to misbeliefs and taboos around the apple. Cashew apple is actually a highly nutritious juicy fruit with high magnesium, vitamin A and vitamin C content, with a great potential to be valorized in different forms.

Together with a group of Beninese processors, Sweet Benin, Bopinc is exploring the possibility of valorising cashew apple products such as juice, dried apples, syrup and bio compost. After successful prototyping and testing, Sweet Bénin is planning to launch sales of cashew apple syrup and is exploring opportunities to offer compost of otherwise wasted apples to cashew farmers, closing the loop.