gebana Benin – a new location

Establishing a foothold in West Africa is not easy. The cashew market is extremely opaque and is controlled by a few large monopolists. Often the cashew nuts, mostly grown conventionally in West Africa, are then transported to India for processing and only afterwards arrive in our shops.

The West African country of Benin is known for its good cashew nuts, which is why gebana has been working there with local cashew producers since 2014. Due to gebana’s many years of experience in neighboring Burkina Faso, a long-term cooperation has now been formed between an innovative Swiss retailer and gebana. After an intensive planning phase, the boards of directors have now given their approval for the founding of this “joint venture” and thus for another location of gebana: gebana Benin.

The vision of gebana is to create added value on site. To achieve this, we build long-term relationships with smallholder farmers, train them in organic cultivation, pay adequately and on time, and work together to improve quality. In addition, we control the value chain from A to Z and strive to make it as sustainable as possible. Product quality is also central for our partner, so the knowledge we have gathered in Burkina Faso, as well as that of our project partner, is passed on and integrated locally.

In the coming months, gebana will focus on building the local structure and introducing processes. The smallholder cooperatives also need support to obtain the targeted FLO and Bio Suisse certification. The 2016 harvest began a few weeks ago and we are already in the middle of processing — the first nuts are to be exported later this month.