In the Coastal Region of Tanzania, there are more than 20,000 small-scale women farmers depending on pineapple and cashew farming as a source of income. They sell their produce to local community consumers because there are very few industries using pineapples as raw materials to manufacture their final goods. The local market cannot absorb all the pineapples leading to plenty of unsold pineapples that cause wastage. This is the same to cashew apples as there is no commercial utilization in Tanzania. As a result, farmers are discouraged to produce more. For example, last year(2019) these women put so much effort physically and financially to invest on cultivation of high quality pineapples to be harvested from May to August 2020. Due to the COVID-19, they could not sell much because local consumers failed to procure the fruits as they are securing food stuff for their families. The situation is made worse by the fact that growers lack knowledge and capacity to add value to their produce

at Ava Group Investments (AGI) building, while maintaining 1-meter social distancing guideline due to the pandemic. The project entails the provision of sustainable markets and training on commercial value addition to 20 women smallscale pineapple and cashew growers in the Coastal Region of Tanzania.