Alphonsa Cashew Industries reaffirms its commitment to sustainability by partnering with Sustainable Nut Initiative (SNI) to promote a sustainable and responsible cashew value chain.
Alphonsa Cashew Industries officially became a member of Sustainable Nut Initiative (SNI) on 6 July 2020. The Sustainable Nut Initiative (SNI) is a cooperation platform for the nut sector where all links of the supply chain are represented. SNI’s aim is to bring the nut sector to a higher level in terms of professionality, sustainability and quality. With the support of IDH and FairMatch Support, SNI was founded in 2015 by a number of front running private sector parties. They shared the deep-rooted desire to improve the circumstances in nut producing countries and work towards sustainable supply chains.
SNI’s members are committed to improve the transparency in the nut chain, strengthening the relationship with farmer cooperatives and working towards volume and quality improvement. Current trade members from the industry include Intersnack, Olam, Lorenz Snack-World, Besana, Ahold Delhaize, Anatrans, Nuts2 and Afokantan Benin Cashew.
Excerpts from the conversation Karin Egberink from Sustainable Nut Initiative had with Ebin Babu Oommen, Director of Alphonsa Cashew Industries
Karin: Why do you think an Initiative like SNI is important?
Ebin: Food production is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and the primary contributor to ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss. By 2050, it’s estimated that the global population will have risen to 10 billion, placing an even greater strain on the planet’s food production systems. Two-year research efforts of an EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets and sustainable food systems just concluded that it would be impossible to put a brake on current climate change and biodiversity loss trends unless drastic dietary changes are made. It found that the consumption of unhealthy foods, particularly red meats, must be reduced by at least 50%. Simultaneously, a significant dietary shift towards other protein sources like nuts, fruits and vegetables must increase by more than 100%, all whilst completely stopping any further expansion of agricultural lands. I believe an initiative like SNI could bring industry players together on a pre-completive platform to bring about sustainable solutions that can catalyse this dietary shift to a great extent and also help the industry reap the benefits from this paradigm shift.
Karin: Why did Alphonsa join SNI?
Ebin: We realise the importance of reaching beyond our internal boundaries to a variety of external stakeholders for embedding sustainability principles into our business core and consider sustainability and responsibility as key enablers of our overall business strategy. Sustainability can be unlocked only through robust partnerships. We have been using cross-sector partnerships to address sustainability issues across our value chain and felt we needed to be part of a forum that is exclusive to the cashew industry reflecting the reality that we cannot achieve our sustainability objectives without widespread support and cooperation. We recently announced the deployment of our Farmer Management System (FMS) in Ghana, that will later be deployed across all sourcing origins. We believe this will be a revolutionary step towards developing fully transparent and traceable sourcing networks and will help us in empowering the first-mile actors. To take this one step forward, we would need collaboration with various actors in the cashew value chain, and we believe this can be achieved through our participation in the Sustainability Nut Initiative.
Karin: What is the main challenge for Alphonsa Cashew Industries?
Ebin: One of the major challenges we face today is the lack of stakeholder engagement. Buyers’ and Retailers’ often fail to see value in investing in building a sustainable cashew supply network. To embed sustainability into the cashew value chain, all the actors need to come together and support each other. A single company cannot be expected to fight alone against the problematic labour or environmental practices of the global cashew supply chain. Only a cohesive effort will truly result in a sustainable and responsible value chain.
Karin: What SNI can bring to tackle this challenge?
Ebin: SNI can bring together various supply chain actors at different stages of the cashew value chain together on a pre-competitive platform and work towards sustainable solutions for the betterment of the industry stakeholders. A cross-sector organisation like SNI could develop and disseminate industrywide sustainability standards because collaborative initiatives have many benefits. They can increase efficiencies for global supply chain actors, who can use a standardised self-assessment or audit to satisfy many customers rather than comply with a dozen different sustainability frameworks developed by individual companies. This makes it economically feasible for companies to embed sustainability principles into their business process.
Karin: What is your expectation of SNI?
Ebin: SNI, which currently focuses on the cashew industry, is better equipped to drive sustainable growth in this industry. The strategic value of any sustainability initiative comes from the need to continually talk with and learn from key stakeholders that are spread across the cashew value chain, and we believe SNI is the perfect platform in bringing the various supply chain actors together and developing solutions for a sustainable and responsible cashew industry.
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