The word from the motherland is that cashews are a big business let’s break the numbers down.

• Market size north of $19 billion dollars. 
• The majority of cashews are produced in Western Africa and the region accounts for around 45% share in the global output.
• Western Africa is followed by India, accounting for 21% of the global output in 2016.
• US was the largest importer of cashew kernel in the global market, with imports valued at USD 1,580,702 thousand in 2017. 

Well, it seems that now a Vietnamese conglomerate wants their share and you can take a wild guess of where they’ll be looking for their source for the product.  If you guessed West Africa you’re on the money.  Is this good for West Africa? At a glance, it seems like it is, but when you start looking at the market numbers, it almost feels like exploitation. 

A competitive global cashew market is dominated by India (a quarter of the 2.2 million tons of world production), yet the tiny West African country of Benin is one of the main producers on the continent with 100,000 ton harvested over the past two seasons.

But like the rest of Africa's cashew producers (Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau), Benin exports the vast majority of nuts in raw form to India, leading to a considerable loss.
When processed the value soars from $5,300 per ton to about $9,000, according to the agricultural statistics firm Planetoscope.  I’ll let you all think on the numbers.

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."

— Mahatma Gandhi

Writing for Forbes, most of the pitches that came into me were about an entrepreneur closing their round of funding.  Raising money is hard, I mean really hard, especially for people of color.  My friend Dawn Dickson has raised money the VC route and now through her current crowdfunding campaign that’s almost reached $1 million for her startup PopCom. 

PopCom is disrupting the retail game at its core.  How? They’re closely watching consumer behaviors.  PopCom website states “60% of shoppers say they prefer self-service tools like digital kiosks, yet only 7% of vending machines are ‘intelligent.’” Dawn created her own vending machine for her company Flat Out, rollable flats that can fit in a purse, then recognized the scalable opportunity in the retail market. 

The Peoples Champ.  Dawn chose the crowd equity route to allow the underrepresented community, friends, and family to invest in the next big thing.  Let’s be honest, my phone was inundated by text and calls when Uber was looking for its second round of funding.  Here’s more on Dawn’s company and campaign.

The Takeaway

Doing things the traditional way isn’t always the best way.

“Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”

— Bill Bradley

A long headline but deserving.  Monday Rep. Lauren Underwood tweeted:

“Though it spends the most $, the US has the worst maternal death rate in the developed world. Rate is nearly 4x worse for black women than white women, even adjusted for education & income. I’m launching the Black Maternal Health Caucus w/@RepAdams to elevate this important issue.”

My wife Dr. Amberly Winley and I have had several conversations around this issue, but it’s a tough one to solve.   She’ll highlight a lot of the reasons and more potential solution in her upcoming post.  Until then, let me give you some facts. 
 
According to the CDC:
 
Considerable racial disparities in pregnancy-related mortality exist. During 2011-2014, the pregnancy-related mortality ratios were:

• 12.4 deaths per 100,000 live births for white women.
• 40.0 deaths per 100,000 live births for black women.
• 17.8 deaths per 100,000 live births for women of other races.

The graph below shows percentages of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States during 2011–2014 caused by:
 

 
A Change Is Gonna Come
This will be a slow progression to get to change.  The caucus formed was a step in the right direction, but still a long journey for change.  Right now they have getting more and more members to join the group and increase awareness of the issue and identify legislative priorities.  Let’s see what happens. 
 

The Root has more. 

"Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex."

— Karl Marx

Forty-four years after Lee Elder became the first African-American man to play in the Masters, he's breaking another barrier.

This summer, Lee Elder will become the first African-American man to receive the US Golf Association's highest honor.

Full story here.