Cashew industry players, mainly farmers in the Bono Region, have appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to establish the Cashew Development Board (CDB) and a processing factory to ensure sustainable growth and development of the industry.
The farmers said the establishment of the board and the factory would also help sustain their interest in the sector.
The region, with 12 administrative municipal and district areas, is one of the highest producers of the commodity in the country.
It has eight of its districts producing the commodity in commercial quantities.
Cashew districts
They include the Jaman North District, the Jaman South Municipality, the Tain District and the Banda District.
A section of the cashew farmers at the press conference
Others are the Wenchi, Berekum and Sunyani West municipalities and the Berekum West District.
Although the rest of the administrative areas such as the Sunyani and Dormaa municipalities, Dormaa West and Dormaa East districts, also produce the commodity, the farmers are not into full-scale production.
It is estimated that the region, with a total land size of 11,107 square kilometres, accounts for 48 per cent of the national production annually.
However, there is no board or a processing factory to regulate the activities of the industry and process the huge volumes of raw cashew nuts respectively.
Over the years, cashew farmers and dealers in the region have continued to lament about low producer prices and some other marketing challenges due to the lack of regulation in the sector.
In some seasons, farmers have had to suspend the sale of raw cashew nuts because of poor pricing of the commodity.
Other frustrated farmers stopped picking raw cashew nuts from their farms because the cost involved in processing a bag of nuts was more than the price of a bag of nuts.
Meanwhile, some of the farmers, who have no facilities to store the nuts or need money for various reasons, have continued to sell them at low prices.
Press conference
In order not for history to repeat itself, the Jaman South Concerned Cashew Farmers Association organised a press conference to appeal to the government to establish the Cashew Board and a processing factory to help resolve farmers’ challenges.
Ripe cashew fruits on a tree
At Drobo in the Jaman South Municipality, the Secretary of the association, Nicholas Foso, said the establishment of the board would help oversee pricing regulations and market access.
“The cashew board will regulate marketing, pricing and export of cashew nuts, similar to the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD),” he said.
Mr Foso said, “As we speak, due to the poor pricing in the 2025 cashew season, many farmers are still keeping their nuts at home because the price is nothing to write home about.”
He said the establishment of the board would ensure farmers received fair prices for their produce and reduce exploitation by middlemen.
He said the cashew sector lacked proper organisation, pricing regimes and supply chain linkages.
Mr Foso said that currently, farmers were at the mercy of buyers, who determine prices, often to the disadvantage of farmers.
“A board would facilitate better planning, budgeting and business improvement for farmers,” he stated.
Regulation benefits
Mr Foso said that if the industry was properly regulated, the cashew sector could contribute significantly to Ghana’s economy through foreign exchange earnings.
Trucks loaded with bags of raw cashew nuts at Suma Ahenkro
He said farmers and other industry players would also benefit from stable prices, subsidies, support and vibrancy and flexibility in the cashew sector.
“We are urging the government to consider the establishment of the board to provide a framework for the sustainable growth and development of the industry.
“This would not only benefit farmers and dealers but also contribute to the country’s economic growth,” he said.
Factory
Mr Foso said the establishment of the factory would help process the raw cashew nuts, including the apple (fruit), into juice to boost the local economy and create sustainable jobs for several youths.
He said about 900,000 tonnes of the cashew apple, which could be processed into juice and several other recipes, went to waste.
Mr Foso said the economic benefit of cashew apple outweighed its nuts, explaining that its benefits ranged from culinary, medicinal and industrial, to beverages such as wine, liquor and other non-alcoholic beverages.
Close border
Mr Foso also urged the government to close the cashew growing area borders during cashew seasons, particularly the Sampa Border, to avoid smuggling or intruding cashew nuts to and from Côte d’Ivoire.
He reminded President Mahama about the promise he made to the chiefs and people of the area during the 2024 general election campaign that he would establish the board and a cashew factory if he won the election.
Cashew fruits
“President Mahama promised and assured the good people of Jaman South and North during his 2024 campaign tour in the areas to establish a regulatory board for the cashew industry, to stabilise prices, provide subsidies and farm inputs,” he said.
Mr Foso said the people had confidence in President Mahama’s capacity to deliver on the promise and urged him to speed up processes leading to the establishment of the board and the factory.
Poor prices
Corroborating the sentiments expressed by the Secretary of the Jaman South Concerned Cashew Farmers Association, Nicholas Foso, at the press conference, a farmer, James Owusu Takyi, lamented about the low producer prices for cashew, saying currently the commodity is sold at between GH¢4 and GH¢5 per kilogramme in the region.
Nicholas Foso, Secretary of the Jaman South Concerned Cashew Farmers Association, addressing the conference
He explained that initially the commodity was selling between GH¢25 and GH¢28, but that had reduced drastically to the current price.
Mr Takyi said farmers were going through several challenges and frustrations daily to produce and he could not understand why he had to go through similar difficulties to get a good price.
He said that the buyers always refused to go by the minimum pricing set up by the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA).
Mr Takyi said the current situation in the industry was demotivating several farmers from expending their energy and resources in the industry.
Cheating
A female cashew farmer, Charity Ninbalayel, told the Daily Graphic that some of the buyers had also adjusted their weighing scales to cheat them, particularly farmers without formal education like her.
She also mentioned the lack of funds to procure farm inputs, poor roads and the influx of foreign cashew nuts from neighbouring countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo as a challenge they were contending with.
Mrs Ninbalayel explained that she had to share the picked raw nuts with the pickers by dividing it into three, where he took two out of the three, because the cost involved in picking the nuts was more than the price at which she was selling the cashew.
She added that buyers purchased both well-dried cashew nuts and partly-dried nuts at the same prices.
A 42-year-old farmer, Thomas Kofi Yeboah, also told the Daily Graphic that the process involved in producing cashew nuts was tedious.
He said he did not expect that after several years of hard work, they would be given such treatment by buyers.
Mr Yeboah appealed to the government and other stakeholders to swiftly intervene to save the cashew industry.
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