A dashboard of sustainability indicators for benchmarking in the West African cashew value chain

The proposed sustainability assessment framework and its implementation as an Excel tool are intended for concerned operators as a sustainability management system, to assess improvements and perform benchmarking with alternative value chains, such as the dominant one where Africa-sourced raw cashew nuts (RCN) are processed in Vietnam. Background data on global cashew value chains, included in the tool, would be useful for benchmarking and eventually for corporate sustainability reporting. The framework addresses the sustainability concerns of cashew processors regarding: i) the environmental impacts of their supply and value chain, ii) their real cost after taking into account environmental externalities, and iii) their socio-economic performance; in a benchmarking context. The system of indicators draws from key sustainability frameworks and tools, including UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, FAO Tool for Agroecology Performance Evaluation, and EU Value Chain Analysis for Development. The built-in data represents the period 2020-2022