We support Sweet Bénin, a group of Beninese SMEs on their mission to valorize the forgotten treasure of cashew: the cashew apple. We do this by market activation to promote cashew apple juice, by piloting bottle recycling to improve the business case of the producers and by discovering new by-products to valorize cashew apples.
Technoserve
Sweet Benin
Marketing and Distribution
Inclusive Innovation
Circular Economy
Food and Agriculture
Benin
2020 to 2021
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.
Besides new product development, we are piloting innovations to improve recycling of juice bottles. By finding the right incentives for recycling, we aim to improve the business case of cashew apple processors and to reduce waste in the chain.
Insights study to identify & prototype 4 new potential by-products
Jan - May 2020
Facilitate linkages with new clients, co-design marketing and recycling pilot, build business case for new products
Jun - Aug 2020
Product selection and roll-out support for new entrepreneurs
Sep 2020 - Mar 2021
New clients engaged, new products launched
Apr - May 2021
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.