Andrew Emmott, Twin&Twin Trading, Senior Associate (Nuts), London, UK. Roundtable of aflatoxin experts on “Building a multi-stakeholder approach to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of food and feed” Brussels, Monday 25th January 2016

1. The impact of hand shelling in Malawi:
25th January 2016
A multi-stakeholder approach to mitigate aflatoxin
contamination of food and feed.
By
Andrew Emmott
Twin & Twin Trading,
Senior Associate (Nuts),
London, UK.

2. The impact of hand shelling in Malawi:
Acknowledgements
This work has been supported by many
individuals and organisations including:

3. • Context:
• Why groundnuts?
• Groundnut production and exports;
• iHand shelling and aflatoxin;
• Barriers and solutions to trading groundnuts in shell;
• Recommendations:
• Buying, drying, storing & shelling centres to service
groundnut farmers;
• Market pull to underpin post harvest centres.
The impact of hand shelling in Malawi:
Overview of Presentation

4. 1. Context
i. Why groundnuts?
ii. Malawi groundnut production decline and recovery
iii. Hand shelling and aflatoxin
2. Barriers and solutions to trading groundnuts in shell
3. Recommendations:
i. Buying, drying, storing & shelling centres to service groundnut farmers
ii. Market pull to underpin post harvest centres
The impact of hand shelling in Malawi:
Why groundnuts?
The impact of hand shelling in Malawi:
Why groundnuts?
• 4 billion hours spent hand shelling groundnuts each year in Africa;
• Groundnuts are the primary source of protein for ca. 0.5 billion people;
• Domestic consumption & regional trade are growing;
• International nut trade renewing interest in Africa;
• Aflatoxins are a major constraint to re-enter regulated markets;
• Regional markets in Africa are starting to tighten aflatoxin controls;
• Malawi one of 5 PACA pilot countries
• Malawi a net exporter of groundnuts
• Significant commitment and coordinated investment needed to
establish and secure value chain reputations for quality groundnuts.

5. The collapse of African groundnut exports to
international markets.
5
40% in the 1970’s
90% in the 1960’s
<5% by 2005
• US, China, & Argentina
dominate exports;
• Co-ordinated supply
chains developed for
regulated exports;
• Africa exports
collapsed;
• But production &
regional trade is now
increasing;
• Africa overtaken India
as 2nd largest producer.

6. 6
Changes in EU market requirements for groundnuts
• Significant investment needed
to re-enter regulated markets eg:
EU, South Africa & with PACA
support East Africa

7. Malawi groundnut production & trade
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
2011
Malawi groundnut production & export
Export
(tonnes)
Production
(tonnes)
• 1970’s > 40,000 mt pa
exported to Europe;
• 1980’s exports &
production collapsed;
• 2000’s production revived;
• Hand shelling for
confectionary markets;
• Priority crop for 2012
National Export Strategy;
• 75% consumed by
domestic market;
• Very little is wasted
(NB. Current food shortage).
Source:
FAOSTAT

8. 8
Malawi groundnut exports
(July 2013-April 2014)
High Enforcement
1,691 MT
2%
Low Enforcement
35,002 MT
50%
Informal
33,551 MT
48%
Source: IFPRI (Authors’ calculations based on Famine Early Warning System (2014)
for informal exports and Malawi Revenue Authority (2014) for formal exports.)

9. 9
Malawi exports to high & low enforcement
countries (2004 -2013)
• Most exports now go to low enforcement markets;
• Almost no exports now to high enforcement markets;
• Some uncertainty about the current volumes of informal exports;
• Note the drought years (circles) NB. 2015 poor rains (2.8 million
people in need for food aid - FEWS).
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
%
Years
Proportion of total exports to low enforcement countries (%)
Proportion of total exports to high enforcement countries (%)
Proportion of total exports sent informally (%)
?
?

10. 4 billion hours of hand shelling per year across Africa
On farm hand shelling
• Poor storage & drying;
• Shells are soaked to ease hand shelling;
• Limited sorting of contaminated nuts.

11. • Groundnut flour had
most contaminated
samples;
• 73% > EU 4ppb
level.
• 25% above 100ppb
• highest = 3871 ppb
• 70% of families add
groundnut flour to meals ca.
twice/ week.
Testson260mt
ofgroundnuts
<2%
sorted
out
60% used in food or feed
Sources:
ICRISAT (2011) &
Twin GPAF (2013)
On farm hand sorting:
Not enough contaminated crop is removed
from the food chain!

12. Contaminated nuts are eaten by informal consumers

13. Formal vs informal value chains
Controls in formal value chains:
• Protect consumers in export, local retail &
other markets;
• Eg: Locally produced safe RUTFs for
severely malnourished children.
Informal value chains:
• Improving quality will impact all consumers;
• There is little awareness or food safety &
control of aflatoxin;
• Few incentives to reduce aflatoxin levels;
• Crushing contaminated crop for oil & meal
relevant to formal & informal chains.

14. Shelling
Storage
Sorting
Improve infrastructure, awareness & standards
Partnerships needed:
• Malawi Partnership for
Aflatoxin Control
(MAPAC) established;
• Aligned to PACA;
• Formal value chain
partnerships eg: Afri-Oils
encouraged;
• Investment needed to
address farmer drying,
storage, irrigation etc.

15. Appropriate
drying
NISgrading&
sorting
Dryshelling
Kernelgrading
&sorting
AflatoxinRisk
Prevalence
No No No No Very High Very High
No No No Yes High Very High
No No Yes No High Low
Yes No No No High Low
No No Yes Yes High High
Yes No Yes No Moderate Low
No Yes Yes Yes Low Very low
Yes Yes Yes No Low Very low
Yes Yes Yes Yes Very Low Very low
Aflatoxin risk matrix -
current trading vs proposed in-shell trading practices
Current
Current
Current
Proposed
In-shell trading, backed by a certified warehouse and buyer or seller contracts
needed to improve confidence in quality groundnuts from Malawi.

16. 16
Aflatoxin exposure and infection
• Three “states” with respect to
Aflatoxin in groundnuts:
(OK; Exposed; Infected.)
• Nuts flow into each inventory
stage with some distribution
of OK, Exposed, Infected
• While in each stage, nuts
“leak”…
– From OK to Exposed through
exposure flow
– From exposed to infection
through infection flow
• Nuts that move to next stage
of supply chain reflect
cumulative impact of exposure
and infection
Exposure
here… …Can show up
as infection
here!
Source:
S Paterson (2015)

17. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
1
8
15
22
29
36
43
50
57
64
71
78
85
92
99
106
113
aflatoxinppb
Samples
Afri-Nut Aflatoxin Results (2013)
Chalimbana CG7
Proportion of all Afri-Nut samples in 2013:
• 26% > 4ppb; &
• 16% > 15ppb.
ICRISAT (2009)
Groundnuts sampled
with > 4ppb aflatoxin:
•43% at farmers
households;
•49% from local markets;
•58 – 60% from shops
and supermarkets;
•41% from warehouses;
•73% of flour samples.
Examples of aflatoxin sampling results for raw
peanuts in Malawi (2009 & 2013).

18. Recommendations:
Establish financial services to facilitate
buying/ post harvest centres:
•Pilot of buying and post harvest
processing centres supported by
economic analysis;
•Review appropriate financial services /
market pull e.g. Warehouse receipts;
•Explore wider services e.g drying and
crushing in ACE certified warehouse
storage of nuts in shell.

19. • Majority of market led work re: aflatoxin and groundnuts focuses on
building export value chains;
• Export driven groundnut market system and value chains fail to serve
the needs of smallholder producers and consumers;
• Need for a food safety focus in local food systems and farm level
infrastructure as well as export value chains.
Conclusion:
Importance of food safety in all food systems
There is a need for a cross
sector approach to the issue
of aflatoxin

20. Thank you