Local Partner:

The Association of Organic Agro-Industrial Producers of El Salvador (APRAINORES)

Project Summary:

APRAINORES is a primary producer cooperative consisting of over 55 families locatedin San Carlos Lempa, in El Salvador's Bajo Lempa region and the product of our partners, CRIPDES and CORDES', organizational work. Members are small-scale farmers whose primary cash income is from small cashew holdings. Together, they own a processing plant employing 80 seasonal workers (up to nine months).

The land was given to the families in a land reform programme for veterans of El Salvador's armed popular insurgency against a repressive government during the 1980s. The main objective of the plant is to improve livelihoods by income generation by selling FLO certified organic cashews. Organic management of their farms helps to keep their environment free of pesticides and GMOs.
The project runs for five years, with an aim of planting more than 4,000 seedlings and growing them to maturity using certified organic farming practices. Upon harvest, the cashew nut and fruit will be processed organically and prepared for local, national, and international markets. The entire production process is certified fair trade.

The cashew fruit consists of two distinct parts, a fleshy stalk in the form of a pear, also called cashew apple, with a brilliant yellow or red skin, which can measure from 5 to 10 cm; and a nut of greybrownish colour, in the shape of a kidney, which hangs from the lower end of the stalk or apple and which is the true nut called cashew. Of the stalk or apple, juices, syrups, preserves, wine or licors are obtained. But its main commercial use is the cashew nut itself, shelled, roasted and salted forming an ingredient as snack and the confectionery industry.

When you make a donation to plant a cashew tree, you are supporting economic self-sufficiency, cooperative organic production, fair trade, and environmental sustainability. Here are only some of the environmental benefits of APRAINORES cashew production:

• Cashew orchards serve as habitats for birds, bees, and wild animals that encourage biodiversity, and they provide shade for animals, reduce erosion, clean the air.
• The presence of cashew orchards allows farmers to harvest large amounts of firewood from yearly pruning which greatly reduces stress on local forests by eliminating the need to cut down indigenous trees.
• Because cashew trees grow well in harsh environments where other trees can't grow, cashew orchards allow farmers to reclaim unusable land.

APRAINORES was hard hit by the tropical storm that devastated coastal El Salvador in October 2011. Damages to the processing plant and to members' crops have significantly hampered projections for this year. APRAINORES is appealing for international solidarity as it attempts to rebuild.

SalvAide is responding to this appeal by asking our network of supporters to consider making a tax-deductible donation to help this successful cooperative rebuild and continue its excellent, organic, fair trade cashew production. Please click here to find out how you can contribute.

You can make a difference with donations of either $20, $50, $100, or $295.

With every $295 donated, one tree will be planted and grown for five years in a special preservation area owned by the community.
With each donation of $295, a tree will be given your name.

We thank one of SalvAide's Canadian partners, the Loretto Sisters, for their generous support of the Cashew Trees for Prosperity Project.