Reinvigorating the groundnut sector in Malawi and southern Africa

Twin aims to revitalise the groundnut sector and enhance the livelihoods of smallholder nut farmers in Malawi and southern Africa by improving the quality, reliability and volume of nut products for the export and domestic markets.

Twin is working in Malawi and southern Africa to contribute to sustainability and enhance the livelihoods of smallholder nut farmers. As part of this project, Twin will work to combat aflatoxin contamination of nut products, reducing health risks and ensuring EU standards for exports are met. It will also work to create a branded nut product for sale in the domestic market and to establish new farmer-owned processing businesses (see Afri-Nut for an example of how this is being achieved).

Improving the quality of groundnuts (aka peanuts) will provide a safe, much-needed source of nutrition for smallholder families.

Background

In the 1960s Africa accounted for around 75% of the global raw peanut trade, but by 2005 this had collapsed to just 5%. 

Low agricultural productivity, malnutrition and poverty affect most rural households in the region. Poor soil fertility and unreliable rainfall limit crop productivity and most households do not produce enough food to feed themselves for more than nine months of the year. It is estimated that nearly 50% of children under five in Malawi’s rural areas are malnourished to such a degree that their development is retarded.

Peanut is a hugely important crop and potential source of nutrition for rural families. It thrives under low rainfall and can be grown with low capital investment. And, being a popular commodity that is widely traded in local, regional and international markets, peanut can also be an important source of income, especially for women farmers, who are its main farmers.

Twin’s work

Twin recognises the huge potential of nut farming to improve smallholder livelihoods, in terms of both income and diet. We have been working with smallholder organisations in Malawi and southern Africa and have achieved a number significant breakthroughs on the ground and in the European retail market.

These include:

• securing own-brand sales through many of the major UK supermarkets;
• raising the profile of Malawi in particular as a source of high quality produce;
• and the launch of Europe’s first fair trade nut company, Liberation Foods CIC, to buy smallholder-produced groundnuts from Africa  and Latin America and which is 42% owned by producer partners.

Integrated supply chains are at the heart of these successes. These provide visibility from the farm gate to retail shelf, enabling feedback on issues such as crop quality and market requirements. This knowledge has enabled organisations to develop systems for producing high quality, reliable goods and services. Traceability has allowed the most severe cases of contamination to be identified and preventative measures to be put in place. It has also facilitated improvements in crop storage and the introduction of mechanised processing.

Twin recently set up Afri-Nut Ltd, a landmark business in Malawi, which brings the processing of groundnuts under the control of producer owners, generating additional income and addressing aflatoxin contamination. Nut products are produced for the domestic market as well as for export.

Next steps

Twin is working to develop business services in the Afri-Nut value chain which improve the storage and shelling of peanuts to reduce the post harvest losses and to find ways of taking aflatoxin out of the food chain.