When the shipment arrives, the people celebrate
Ward Holdings International defies odds, delivers first Tanzanian consumer product directly to America—$6 billion industry awaits
When shipment containers covered in images of beautiful Safari animals arrive at the Houston International Airport, Friday, Nov. 4, this historical moment will bring with it a restored connection between Africa and all of America.
The containers hold eight tons of TanzaNutz that will travel 8,791 miles to the United States as the first cashew nuts grown, harvested, and consumer packaged in Tanzania to be exported directly from the farmers in Tanzania to America—and they are headed for the historic Congo Square in New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong Park.
“It has been an amazing journey,” said Lloyd Ward, founder of Ward Holdings International LLC.
The symbolism of this historic arrival cannot be missed said Tony Brown, a founding investor and vice president of global marketing and big events. “Millions of slaves were brought into the Port of New Orleans. We are coming full circle where our ancestors arrived in chains and now, on their shoulders, we bring TanzaNutz, the best-tasting cashews in the world, to the great city of New Orleans via economic freedom.”
“Our brothers and sisters have been waiting on us,” said Martin Johnson, co-founder of Ward Holdings International LLC.
On November 4-6, the arrival of TanzaNutz will be celebrated at the first TanzaFest, a free festival celebrating the culture and products of Tanzania and East Africa.
“This brings me so much joy to officially launch TanzaNutz–a product that has such a powerful and positive impact on the lives of the Tanzanian people– in the city of New Orleans with a festival rich with African history, culture, and heritage,” said Ward.
This month’s TanzaFest is the first of a four-part series of monthly festivals in Congo Square. The culminating festival, which is planned for February 2023, will be AfriFest and will bring additional great tasting and highly nutritional food products directly from the rich and fertile soils of Africa to the USA and all of America, said Ward.
HISTORICAL BEGINNINGS
What has gotten TanzaNutz here?
Simply put—Expertise.
Ward and Johnson are specialists in economic development, transformation, finance, housing, and industrialization. They are also pioneers in their industries.
Ward was the first Black CEO of a Fortune 500 Company in the USA, a previous president of FritoLay, as well as an executive leader at PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble. Johnson, who is a Louisiana-based finance executive, was the first Black city president of Regions Bank and serves on the Southern University System Foundation Board of Directors.
Johnson said, “the WHI team entered Tanzania highly experienced with the highest level of talent. We didn’t come in searching (for opportunity and sustainability) we came in knowing.”
Ward Holdings Tanzania Limited is a Tanzanian company and TanzaNutz is a global brand from Tanzania and a product from Tanzania – even the packaging for TanzaNutz was designed and produced in Tanzania. Brown said Ward and an international team took a deep dive into cashews and developed a process called integrated market-driven industrialization.
The mission of TanzaNutz is to create sustainable prosperity in Tanzania and to deliver the best cashew nuts in the world. This partnership opens opportunities for African processors, farmers, and families; therefore allowing Tanzanians to take full advantage of the growing demand for organic products. The dynamics of cashew processing, manufacturing, and industrialization are as great as the opportunities.
In fact, according to IMARC reports, the global cashew market size reached $6.76 billion in 2021.
“Africa is the most resourced land on earth. There is no dispute about that, yet all of Africa does not have the effect on the global economy as France,” Ward said. “There is a great injustice. The injustice is that Africa is the most resource-abundant land on earth yet it contributes less than 3 percent of the global economy as measured by the gross domestic product.”
“This scarcity is not of Heaven. God would not have made Africa the most abundant land on earth and wanted scarcity for its inhabitants,” Ward said.
With this partnership with Ward Holdings, Godfrey Simbeye, president of Ward Holdings Tanzania, told to The (Tanzanian) Citizen, “Tanzania is experiencing one of the greatest economic breakthroughs in agricultural development since independence in 1961.”
“This is Kingdom assignment,” said Ward. “It’s time for a new day and a new way in Africa.”
DAWN OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
Throughout Ward’s five decades of leading global corporations, he has seen the industrial transformation of America and China. He said the dawn of industrialization in Tanzania has begun.The company’s core objective is to partner with African producers to monetize agricultural products at higher economic values.
“We are re-engineering the global supply chain to go directly from Africa to the U.S.A and the rest of the world,” said Ward.
An adage states, “if you give a man a fish then he eats for a day, but if you teach him how to fish then he eats for a lifetime.”
Ward said the Tanzanian cashew producers are learning how to fish in the American market. And, the Ward Holdings team is showing the way into the global market thereby giving Tanzania “access to the stream.”
PROMISE OF A COUNTRY
The cities of New Orleans and Dar es Salaam have established a sister city relationship. New Orleans will be the first major market to launch the TanzaNutz brand. In 2023, cargo containers carrying TanzaNutz will enter America monthly through the port of New Orleans from the East African port in Dar es Salaam. Then, TanzaNutz will be delivered to subscribers at home and shelved at stores nationwide. Ward Holdings expects to establish more than a million jobs in Tanzania and hundreds in New Orleans.
Ward and Johnson said they are inviting others to take a new look at Africa, invest, and become “members of our community on this amazing journey to realize the promise of a country and a continent.”
To do so, visit www.TanzaNutz.com. The company will go public on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in 2023 and currently offers pre-IPO investments for private investors.
“This moment is to be celebrated,” said Ward. “The world needs Africa and doesn’t realize it – yet!”
By Candace J. Semien
Jozef Syndicate reporter @jozefsyndicate
Jozef Syndicate 