We are pleased to announce that Daarnhouwer has become a participant of the Sustainable Nut Initiative (SNI). SNI brings key players in the nut industry together to strategically develop sustainable supply chains and a traceable nut sector. SNI’s participants are committed to improve the transparency in the nut chain, strengthening the relationship with farmer cooperatives and working towards volume and quality improvement. We talked to Daarnhouwer about their motivation to join SNI.

Daarnhouwer is a trading company and has been in business for over a 100 years; starting as a specialised cocoa trader in 1908. The company expanded its product portfolio and is now an established brand name in originating and supplying specialty cocoa, tree nuts and green coffee beans. Daarnhouwer Tree Nuts offers a wide range of nuts in 5 main categories: almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts and Brazil nuts. Daarnhouwer strives to create meaningful relationships throughout the value chain. Close partnerships helps them to maintain a transparent, reliable and timely sourcing of products.

Why do you think an Initiative like SNI is important?

Every organisation faces challenges in their supply chain; we believe we need each other within the chain to make a long-term difference. As Daarnhouwer we want to work as sustainable and fair as possible. An initiative such as SNI is important to bring all the actors together and to stimulate working together on these joint issues that we all face. Working collectively will have a much stronger effect compared to many separate initiatives from smaller actors in the chain.

In addition, an initiative such as SNI creates awareness and enables visible improvements. All actors in the chain must be aware of issues and willing to contribute to improvements and create sustainable change.

Why did Daarnhouwer join SNI?

Daarnhouwer always thrives to do business in an ethical and responsible manner. It is important for a company to have values and norms, which see further than the day to day business and results, and which ensures existence for our future generations. In this respect, responsible business operations and therefore sustainability is a topic that strongly relates to Daarnhouwer’s identity.

We joined SNI because we think that working together within the whole chain is the most important aspect of creating sustainable change and improvement. SNI is one of the largest parties in the field of sustainability and nuts and brings all actors, that would like to make a difference, together. SNI knows what’s going on and you can therefore work together in a targeted manner.

What is the main challenge for Daarnhouwer?

As Daarnhouwer we aim to always source sustainably and fairly. Within the various chains and depending on the type of nuts, there are challenges to tackle. As far as cashews is concerned, cultivation areas are mainly West African countries, after which they are often further processed in Vietnam and India. As Daarnhouwer, we mainly source our kernels from Vietnam. We continue to support initiatives to improve supply chain related issues such as sustainability, food safety and traceability in our supply chains. A lot of improvements have been made already the past decade but there are still challenges ahead. The challenges we see on these areas need to be known in the whole chain in order to make a real difference. Only by support of all parties involved will there be a higher chance of success, and of actually improving certain conditions in order to make a change.

What SNI can bring to tackle this challenge?

Internal due diligence investigations have shown that in the nut industry, specifically for cashews, there are still a lot of issues to be tackled and to improve. Current efforts of Daarnhouwer have led us to believe that these issues are so challenging that, in order to make a real impact, we need to go beyond certification and work together in the supply chain to improve. Within SNI we like to collaborate on a sector level, to raise awareness on the importance of these issues and learn from each other in improving the sustainability of the nut sector. We believe that the consumer is asking for this and willing to pay for it, the challenge for the complicated and competitive supply chains is to stimulate and realise this change collectively.

What is your expectation of SNI?

Daarnhouwer wants to drive embedded change. We are looking forward to collaboration, learning from each other, from best practices and contributing to the SNI vision.