In groundnuts, there is robust demand from South Africa, while internationally there is also significant demand for certain varieties. Increased supply of groundnuts can come from Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.
The Southern Africa Trade Hub has awarded a grant of US$100,000 to Central African Seed Services (CASS) to purchase equipment for a first-of-its-kind groundnut processing facility in Lusaka, Zambia. The investment is expected to facilitate more than US$6 million of trade.
The cleaning, sorting and grading equipment purchased by the grant will enable Jungle Beat, CASS's long-time Zambian partner, to export surplus Zambian groundnuts to South Africa for the first time, spurring significant growth in production. From Zambia the nuts will also find their way to European markets in a variety of peanut-based products.
Currently there is no company operating in Zambia with the requisite equipment, making it all but impossible for the country's groundnuts to access the more lucrative markets in South Africa and beyond.
Groundnuts (also known as peanuts) are one of Southern Africa's most important crops, but contamination by the carcinogenic fungus aflatoxin has become a public health issue and a significant barrier to trade. Risks associated with the fungus include liver cancer, impaired growth for children under five and suppression of the immune system.
From May 15-16, SATH facilitated a visit of farmers and other agricultural stakeholders, including banks, investment promotion agencies and commodity traders, to the 2012 NAMPO Agricultural Trade Show in South Africa, the largest agricultural trade show in Africa.
On February 16, the Southern Africa National Seed Organization (SANSOR) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SATH to advance current and future regional food security challenges through the use of the seed system as a tool to achieve growth and capacity in selected value chains.
This report describes the outcome of an assessment on aflatoxin testing facilities in Zambia and Malawi during October and November 2011. The assessment was carried out by an independent consultant.
The objective was to assess the status of the aflatoxin testing facilities in Zambia and Malawi and their ability to provide commercially acceptable aflatoxin testing services. The report gives a summary of the outcomes of the assessment in Section 2 and also discusses the findings in more detail in Section 3.
The report makes a number of recommendations on possible interventions to address the shortcomings identified.
Between August and December 2011 Twin worked with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH) on a groundnut value chain research project to identify risks of aflatoxin contamination related to the ingress points of aspergillus sp. in the Afri-Nut value chain. While the primary focus was on Afri-Nut in Malawi (a company that Twin has a shareholding in), Twin also took into consideration groundnut sourcing work they have done with Ikuru, a Mozambique based farmer's cooperative. The research reviewed techniques and technologies that may be applied to mitigate these risks and recommends a cluster of commercially driven interventions to facilitate change across the groundnut sector in Southern Africa.
In Nampula, northern Mozambique, SATH explored areas of interest between agricultural commercial buyers and exporters on enhancing the economic empowerment of women farmers.
The team met with a group of smallholder farmer associations that were connected to organic agricultural production. The farmers described their agricultural enterprises, how their businesses and livelihoods had changed since the arrival of the larger commercial buyers and the role of women in their households and farming community.
As a result of the 2011 SATH trade mission to Nampula and Zambezia Provinces, Mozambique, SA Groundnut, a South African company, established a production joint venture with Quilimane-based Madal SARL to conduct groundnut trials in the area. During the trade mission, Hector Lazarus of SA Groundnut was introduced to key groundnut role players in Mozambique and recognized the potential to expand the company’s production and trade footprint. With the assistance of the USAID-funded AgriFuturo Project, with whom SATH has a close working relationship, Mr. Lazarus was introduced to Madal and a memorandum of understanding was concluded between SA Groundnut, AgriFuturo and Madal allowing for groundnut trials to take place.
Groundnuts are a vital source of cash income and a highly nutritious food for rural households in Malawi and Mozambique. However, groundnuts, along with maize and sorghum, suffer significantly from aflatoxin contamination, exacerbated by a poor understanding of the problem by many stakeholders, including farmers.
NAMPO is the largest agricultural trade show in Southern Africa. It is held annually in Bothaville, South Africa. The show is organized and hosted by Grain South Africa, a voluntary association of grain producers established to deal with issues relating to the industry and providing both information and policy support to the sector.
The Southern Africa Trade Hub has awarded a grant of US$100,000 to Central African Seed Services (CASS) to purchase equipment for a first-of-its-kind groundnut processing facility in Lusaka, Zambia. The investment is expected to facilitate more than US$6 million of trade.
Groundnuts (also known as peanuts) are one of Southern Africa's most important crops, but contamination by the carcinogenic fungus aflatoxin has become a public health issue and a significant barrier to trade. Risks associated with the fungus include liver cancer, impaired growth for children under five and suppression of the immune system.
From May 15-16, SATH facilitated a visit of farmers and other agricultural stakeholders, including banks, investment promotion agencies and commodity traders, to the 2012 
In Nampula, northern Mozambique, SATH explored areas of interest between agricultural commercial buyers and exporters on enhancing the economic empowerment of women farmers.
As a result of the 2011 SATH trade mission to Nampula and Zambezia Provinces, Mozambique, SA Groundnut, a South African company, established a production joint venture with Quilimane-based Madal SARL to conduct groundnut trials in the area. During the trade mission, Hector Lazarus of SA Groundnut was introduced to key groundnut role players in Mozambique and recognized the potential to expand the company’s production and trade footprint. With the assistance of the USAID-funded AgriFuturo Project, with whom SATH has a close working relationship, Mr. Lazarus was introduced to Madal and a memorandum of understanding was concluded between SA Groundnut, AgriFuturo and Madal allowing for groundnut trials to take place.
Groundnuts are a vital source of cash income and a highly nutritious food for rural households in Malawi and Mozambique. However, groundnuts, along with maize and sorghum, suffer significantly from aflatoxin contamination, exacerbated by a poor understanding of the problem by many stakeholders, including farmers.
Activities