An exploratory survey allowed us to identify the existence of about forty cashew apple processing units in Benin. These units are distributed in the departments of Collines (17 units), Borgou (10 units), Donga (6 units) and Atacora (7 units). This study took place in the department of Collines where the processing of cashew apples first began in Benin. In addition, it houses nearly half of the existing cashew apple processing units in Benin.

The department of Collines belongs entirely to the Sudano Guinean climate zone marked by two rainy seasons which cover the periods from April to July and from October to November. It is a transition zone (between the South and the North) of 16,900 km² which extends after the plateau of Abomey and that of Kétou to the 9th parallel north. This area is entirely occupied by leached or impoverished tropical ferruginous soils. These characteristics are very favorable to cashew cultivation. This department has six municipalities which are Dassa-Zoumé, Savalou, Bantè, Savè, Glazoué and Ouèssè (Figure 1).

This study concerns the seventeen (17) existing processing units in the Collines department. Cashew apple collectors and traders were surveyed by the snowball method (Table 1).

The number of individual actors represents the sum of the individuals working alone. The number of actors along the chain (n_op) is the number of individuals involved in the same activity.

・ Destination of the juice produced in the observation units

The ArcGIS software was used to map the sales channels of the juice produced and to determine the different destinations of this juice inside and outside Benin.

・ Estimation of the financial profitability indicators of the value chain

The average cost of processing apple into juice (C_t) according to the [12] formula

C t = [ ∑ 1 n o p ( ( C f p + C v p ) / Q t ) i ] / n a m (1)

With

C f p = the fixed cost of production;

C v p = the variable cost of production;

Q t = the quantity of apple processed into juice per processing unit;

( C f p + C v p ) / Q t = the average production cost per unit into juice;

n a m : the number of actors per link;

i : an actor.

The average unit marketing cost (C_c) was calculated similarly

C c = [ ∑ 1 n a m ( ( C f c + C v c ) / Q c ) i ] / n a m (2)

With

C f c = the fixed cost of marketing;

C v c = the variable cost of marketing;

Q c = the quantity of juice marketed by each unit;

C c is expressed in FCFA/liters.

The average apple harvesting cost (C_h) was calculated similarly

C h = [ ∑ 1 n a m ( ( C f h + C v h ) / Q c h ) i ] / n a m (3)

With

C f h = the fixed cost of harvesting;

C v h = the variable cost of harvesting;

Q c h = quantity of juice marketed by each unit;

C h is expressed in FCFA/litters.

The costs consist only of the variable harvesting and marketing costs (fuel, travel costs). Equation (2) becomes:

C c = [ ∑ 1 n a m ( C v c / Q c ) i ] / n a m (4)

Equation (3) becomes:

C h = [ ∑ 1 n a m ( C v h / Q c h ) i ] / n a m (5)

The margin (Mt) from the processing of the cashew juice is established according to the Springer-Heinze relationship (2018)

M t = P v − C j (6)

Were,

P v is the unit selling price of the product.

C j is the cost of the corresponding value chain link.

The margin (M_p) from the cashew marketing was calculated using:

M p = P v − C p (7)

The margin (M_j) from the marketing of cashew juice was calculated using:

M j = P v − C h (8)

The rate of profitability (r) is obtained by the formula:

r = M P v × 100 (9)

I = Q p × M (10)

I: Income which is expressed in FCFA; M is the production or marketing margin. The contribution of income to the reduction poverty (C_p) is established by:

C p = I S p (11)

S_p is the reference poverty line for the year the data was collected, which was 1,401.73 FCFA/day or 504,622.8 FCFA per adult person/year in 2022 [13].

・ Estimation of economic performance indicators of the Value chain

The employment created by the CV, is expressed by:

E = ( N × Tm ) / 8

○ Tm is the average time (h) devoted to the activity, adjusted for the quantities produced. Eight hours of work were considered to correspond to one working day. E is expressed in working days (jt).

○ The income of a link in the value chain is obtained by multiplying the income received by each direct actor by the number of actors in the link considered. Thus, the total income of the Value Chain was obtained by summing the income of all the different links in the chain.

○ the added value created by all the players at each step of the value chain is estimated using the following formula from [14]:

VA = CA − CI

CA represents the revenue in FCFA; CI, the intermediate consumption in Fcfa.

The total value added was obtained by summing the value added of all the links.

Cashew apples are collected from cashew plantations to be processed into juice, syrup, wine and liquor. This activity is carried out by harvesters and processing units. Most processing units have rolling stock called tricycles that allow them to go from farm to farm in order to buy selected apples from harvesters. The purchased apples are transported to the processing units in the villages and towns of the various communes of the Collines department where these apples are transformed after a process that generally last for 10 hours. The juice is then sold in the city centers of Benin and is also exported outside Benin.

Table 2 below shows that the harvesting of the cashew apples has the highest profit margin with a profitability of 86.66%, followed by the apple juice processing which boast of profitability of 76.75% and the actual commercialisation of apple juice is the activity which has the smallest profit margin with a profitability of 15.64%. This is generally due to the fact that there is less cost involved in the harvest of the apples as compared to processing and marketing.

The values in brackets represent standard error

A look at the contribution of each stage in reducing poverty (Table 3) shows that a harvester would see his/her poverty level reduced by almost 6%, while a trader would see his/her poverty level reduced by 3.38%. Finally, players at the

processing stage see the most benefits as their poverty level reduce by a staggering 135.80%. Hence, we noted that the activity of processing cashew apples makes it possible to completely move from below the poverty line.

In terms of employment potential (Table 4), the cashew apple value chain in the Collines department mobilized at least 14,461 working days (JT) for a production of 5888 liters of apple juice in 2021; the processing activity created more jobs with a contribution of 12,875 working days. Overall, the current income and added value received by all actors are 146647571.7 and 123,269,874 FCFA respectively.

The analysis of Figure 2 below reveals that in 2021, 13% of the cashew apple juice produced in the Collines department in Benin was consumed in the Southern of the country, 6% was consumed in the North and 10% in the Central regions of the country. In addition, 20% of the juice was exported to WAEMU countries such as Burkina-Faso, Niger, Togo and Senegal. In Europe, 23% of the juice produced was consumed in France and 9% in Germany. The remaining 19% was consumed in Asia, mainly in Israel. In short, 71% of the cashew apple juice produced in the Collines department is exported to WAEMU, European and Asian countries. France is the biggest consumer of the cashew juice outside of Benin.