Young Food Entrepreneur of the Week – Tanzania – Fahad Awadh

Cashews are a major export crop for Tanzania and a significant source of income for many small farmers.
The East African country produces about 200,000 tons of cashews a year and is considered one of the best quality cashews in the world. But value addition in the form of processing of raw cashew and capacity building in this sector is wanting. The lack of local processors in Tanzania means there are very few jobs created from this valuable commodity; cashews are an important foreign exchange earner for the country.
Fahad Awadh, an ambitious 29-year old entrepreneur from Tanzania, recently moved back home from Canada to set up a cashew processing facility in Tanzania in an effort to bring international standards and traceability to the cashew nuts. He is the founder of YYTZ Agro-Processing, a cashew processing company that is adding value locally while creating jobs and boosting the income of farmers and the community as a whole. The company’s flagship processing facility in Zanzibar has an installed capacity of 2,500 Tons per annum.
YYTZ Agro-Processing recently raised a $500,000 investment from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund to establish another processing facility in Mtwara, southeastern Tanzania.
(source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2016/12/13/this-29-year-old-just-raised-500000-to-process-cashews-in-tanzania/#6f29e9967aad )