Innovations

Anatrans trains and gradually remits service delivery and sourcing responsibilities to well-performing farmer groups to reduce cashew-sourcing costs.

Farmer Segmentation

Who are they?

Anatrans is a leading cashew nut processor in Burkina Faso exporting to international markets.

About the SDM

The model works by segmenting producer organizations (POs), building their capacity, and incentivizing and empowering them to take on a bigger role in managing the supply chain including a growing role in the SDM.

How it works

Anatrans buys raw cashew nuts from POs and tracks the quantity, quality, and timeliness of each PO’s delivery. While farmer training and commercial assistance is offered to all POs (which graduate from 1- to 3-star segments), additional services are only offered to POs providing a minimum quantity, quality, and formal/professional management. 2-star POs receive capacity building, financial assistance, and diversification services, and 3-star POs receive additional support to get certification and access to the premium market.

POs are encouraged over time to professionalize and grow, enabling POs to graduate to access more extensive service offerings and take on larger commercial responsibilities, thus generating additional sources of income for the POs. As the POs professionalize, they gradually take over the service delivery to individual farmers from Anatrans and become more viable business partners for offtake.

Key outcomes

As a result, Anatrans sources more cashews (increasing from 3,300 tons in 2014 to 9,200 tons in 2019) from fewer and more professional POs, reducing their sourcing costs and enabling them to focus on their core business – processing cashews.