File photo of cashew fruits
• Cashew nuts is a top earner for Ghana in non-traditional export items
• Establish regional offices for progress of cashew industry, MP
• A uniform purchasing price for cashew to soon be announced
The Ministry of Agriculture is expected to soon announce a uniform purchasing price for cash crop, Cashew, a Citi Business report has said.
The portal attributed the disclosure made to the Chief Executive of Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), Emmanuel Agyapong Quaitoo.
Addressing participants at an annual conference and inauguration ceremony of the Cashew Traders and Exporters Association of Ghana, Emmanuel Quaitoo said, “We were inaugurated on September 29, 2021, and within that short period we expected the TCDA to come out with a price of cashew. We looked at all these factors and noticed that couldn’t do it at that time. As a marketing person, I know that before you price the product, the product must be defined. At that time, we didn’t have the definition of raw cashew nut. No authority had done that.”
“So, my first promise was that we are first defining the qualities and standards of cashew, it is only when we do that, that we can price it. As I speak to you, through the help of GIZ, and the benevolence of Ministry of Agriculture they sponsored the definition and standardisation of cashew. And they have also defined what a kernel of cashew is by Ghana Standards Authority. However, I am not the one to announce the price. It is on the table of the Minister for Food and Agriculture and in December we will fix a date. I know definitely, he will come here to announce a price for you,” he added.
Over the years, the purchasing price of the cashew has often brought a rift between farmers and buyers of the cash crop hence a move by government to announce a purchasing price.
Meanwhile, cashew nuts in the second quarter of 2021 topped the list of commodities exported for Ghana.
For cashew nuts, which is the primary export commodity for Ghana, it accounted for US$116.17 million, representing 36.70 percent of the total exported non-traditional items for the period.
