Some Ghanaian cashew farmers have urged the government to introduce a regulated minimum farmgate price for cashew nuts in the country before this year’s general election.
Farmers in the Bono regional town of Wenchi made this call during a recent interaction with journalists at Wenchi.
The farmers said President Nana Akufo-Addo should direct the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA) to fix and announce the minimum producer price for raw cashew nuts (RCNs) before the December 7.
The cashew farmers led by the National Chairman of the Cashew Farmers Association, Nana Adu Boamponsem V, believed that announcing the minimum producer price for RCNs for the 2024-2025 cashew season before the 2024 general election would enable actors in the cashew value chain to do business without uncertainty.
Nana Boamponsem stated, “If the minimum producer price for cashew is fixed before the election on December 7, it will be binding for the next government irrespective of the political party that will form the government”.
He suggested that various factors, including the current cedi-to-dollar exchange rate and the international market price for RCN, should be considered before fixing the minimum producer price.
“Currently, the cost of producing cashews has multiplied, and if the TCDA does not consider all the necessary indicators before fixing the price, it will adversely affect us, the farmers,” Nana Boamponsem stressed.
He noted that President Akufo Addo’s government has fulfilled only one promise to cashew farmers: the institution of the Tree Crops Development Authority.
“We have heard that other tree crop farmers have received some support from the government, but those of us cultivating cashews have not had anything.
This means that President Akuffo Addo has failed to fulfil his promises to us, so we urge the TCDA to confer with the government and help resource cashew farmers to meet the target of 400,000 metric tons of RCNs after 4 years,” he said.
Nana Boamponsem asked the government to honour its pledge to make the cashew industry like cocoa, where the commodity will become Ghana’s highest foreign exchange earner.
For his part, the Secretary of the farmers, Yahaya Bellu, appealed to the government to allow foreign cashew nuts buyers to get to the farm gate and buy from cooperatives or farmers if the local buyers fail to buy at the announced minimum price.
He emphasised that the cashew farmers will advise themselves in the December 7 election if the government fails to meet their demands.
Ghana is Africa’s second largest producer of raw cashew nuts with an output of about 230,000 metric tons in the 2022/2023 crop year, after exporting 139,743 metric tons the previous year.
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