Founder
Started the company in Mtwara in 2010 and grew it from a single-crop cashew desk into a three-commodity export house spanning Tanzania, Madagascar and Uganda. Bio to be added.
About Afri Exports
The company
From a Mtwara Cashew Desk to a Four-Commodity Export House
Afri Exports opened in 2010 trading a single crop from Tanzania's cashew belt. The vanilla programme in Madagascar and Uganda came next, then sesame from the Tanzanian interior and green cardamom from the Eastern Arc highlands — each added only once we could apply the same origin discipline we had proven on cashew. The head office remains in Mtwara; the network now spans three countries.
Where our crops come from
Three origins, each worked at the farm gate
We do not buy off trading floors. Each commodity has its own intake network — contracted grower groups, curers and collection points whose records feed our lot numbering. That is what lets us say, for any container, exactly where the crop grew and when it was harvested or cured.
- Southern Tanzania — cashew intake across the growing districts
- Central Tanzania — the sesame belt's field-crop lots
- Eastern Arc highlands, Tanzania — green cardamom from contracted growers
- Sava region, Madagascar — cured Bourbon vanilla from contracted curers
- Uganda — twin-harvest vanilla routed through Mombasa
How lots are cleared
One protocol every commodity must pass
Quality here is a checklist, not a promise. Before any lot is booked to a vessel it passes a sampling plan, a crop-specific laboratory panel and a tolerance sheet matched to the buyer's market. The same sequence applies whether the lot is kernels, beans or seed — only the test parameters change.
- TBS-certified processing operation in Mtwara for cashew and sesame
- Crop-specific lab panel on a representative sample of every lot
- Vanilla assayed for vanillin and moisture at origin before consolidation
- Lot-numbered documents linking test results to intake records
- TBS Certified
- Lab-Tested Lots
- Origin-Traceable
Who runs it
One Team Across Three Programmes
Sourcing, quality and logistics sit with the same five people across every commodity — decisions are made by staff who know the lots, not by a call centre.
Joachim Mbwana
Sourcing Lead
Owns the buying side of all three programmes — cashew and sesame intake across Tanzania's growing regions, and the curer and grower-group relationships behind our Madagascar and Uganda vanilla lots.
Asha Ngonyani
Quality Manager
Wrote the single quality protocol that every commodity passes before it ships — sampling plans, lab-test panels per crop, and the tolerance sheets our contracts are checked against.
Daniel Mahenge
Logistics Coordinator
Routes each product family through the right corridor — containers out of Dar es Salaam and Mtwara for cashew and sesame, vanilla consolidated through Toamasina and Mombasa — and keeps the document packs ahead of the vessels.
Neema Kessy
Nutrition & Editorial Lead
Turns lab data and field practice into the buyer guides on our journal, and keeps nutrition and food-safety claims across all four Afri Exports sites accurate and referenced.
Who we ship to
Buyers on four continents, three export corridors
Cashew and sesame containers load at Dar es Salaam and Mtwara; vanilla consolidates at origin and moves by air or sea through Toamasina and Mombasa. Wherever the destination, the document pack is prepared against that market's import rules.
- IndiaKernels and RCN for processors and distributors
- United Arab EmiratesMulti-commodity re-export hub
- VietnamRaw cashew nut programmes
- Egypt & LebanonSesame for tahini and kernel imports
- European UnionVanilla and food-ingredient buyers
- United States & CanadaGourmet vanilla and extraction lots
- East AsiaSortex sesame to exacting intake specs
- Anywhere by enquiryFOB to the port you name
Read before you buy
Guides we wish every new buyer had read
The journal covers the questions that fill our inbox — supplier vetting, Incoterms, harvest timing and the paperwork behind an East African shipment.
Talk to the desk
Four commodities, one conversation
Send the crops, specifications and destination ports you are working with — the Mtwara desk answers with availability and indicative numbers within one business day.