IDN Norway is developing a 36-month intervention project targeting the cashew nut value chain in Tanzania’s southern regions of Mtwara, Lindi, and Ruvuma. Despite cashew exports exceeding USD 531 million in the year ending June 2025 — more than double the prior year — the sector remains structurally underdeveloped. Less than 10% of production is processed domestically before export, approximately one million smallholder farmers remain in low-income cycles, and an estimated 2.3 million metric tonnes of cashew apple by-product are discarded annually without any value extraction. The project seeks to systematically address the bottlenecks preventing equitable and sustainable growth across the full value chain.

A preliminary landscape assessment identifies six critical gaps. Farm productivity remains far below attainable potential due to ageing, low-yielding tree stock, poor adoption of Good Agricultural Practices, and increasing climate volatility — El Niño and La Niña cycles can reduce harvests by up to one-third. Domestic processing capacity is severely underdeveloped, with seasonal harvest gaps and limited cold storage forcing factories to import raw West African nuts to sustain year-round operations. Smallholder farmers and small-scale processors face acute constraints in accessing affordable credit, crop insurance, and real-time market price information, which perpetuates distress selling and exploitation by intermediary traders. The near-total waste of cashew apple by-product represents a significant economic loss. Women and youth are systematically excluded from land ownership, cooperative structures, and credit systems. Finally, limited quality certification infrastructure prevents Tanzanian processors from accessing premium organic, Fairtrade, and GlobalG.A.P.-certified markets in Europe and North America.

To address these gaps, the project proposes six strategic interventions. Farmer Field and Business Schools will be established across Mtwara and Lindi to train smallholders in climate-smart agronomy, tree rehabilitation through grafting, and integrated pest management, targeting a 40–50% increase in yield per acre over three seasons. Community-level post-harvest infrastructure — including drying yards, hermetic storage, and grading facilities — will reduce losses, currently running at 15–20%, and strengthen farmers’ bargaining power. Technology transfer from the Norwegian and Scandinavian agri-food industries will equip processing SMEs with shelling, grading, and packaging capacity, targeting 30% growth in domestically processed volumes. Drawing on IDN’s circular economy expertise, pilot enterprises will be developed around cashew apple by-products, including juice, vinegar, animal feed, and bio-ethanol. Digital and financial inclusion components will connect farmers to real-time price data, mobile savings and insurance products, and the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange. Finally, gender-responsive and youth entrepreneurship programming will be embedded across all components, with a target of at least 50% female and under-35 beneficiaries.

The project will engage stakeholders across four tiers. At the government and regulatory level, key partners include the Cashew Nut Board of Tanzania, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Tanzania Agriculture Research Institute, and the Tanzania Mercantile Exchange. Farmer organisations — including primary cooperatives, the Main Cooperative Union (MAMCU), and women’s and youth groups — will serve as both primary beneficiaries and implementing partners. The private sector engagement spans Tanzanian processing SMEs, Norwegian agri-food technology companies, fintech platforms, and international buyers in Europe, India, and Vietnam. On the development and research side, the project will work with SINTEF Foundation, CARE International Tanzania, TechnoServe’s Prosper Cashew programme, and Sokoine University of Agriculture, with co-financing sought from Norad, EEA Grants, and multilateral development windows.

By year three, the project expects to achieve measurable improvements across six outcome areas: a 40–50% yield increase among 5,000 or more trained farming households; a 30% rise in domestically processed cashew volumes; operational pilot enterprises generating revenue from cashew apple by-products; new women-led cooperative structures with at least 50% female and youth beneficiaries; quality certification pathways established for at least three processor partners; and over 3,000 farmers connected to digital price information and mobile financial services. IDN Norway will lead project coordination, stakeholder facilitation, technology transfer partnerships, and monitoring and evaluation, building on existing operational presence in Tanzania through the J-CRISD climate resilience project in Chamwino District.