Calls for fairing pricing as Ghana’s cashew farmers teeter on the brink
Cashew production is becoming a key agricultural export commodity for Ghana, raking in millions of dollars for the country’s economy.
According to the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), the country earned $981 million (USD) from the export of cashew in 2016, making it one of the leading agricultural export commodities after cocoa.
The crop is currently grown on more than 89,000 hectares of farmland across the country, creating an estimated 40,000 jobs in production and even more in processing and logistics.
Struggling to meet potential
Ghana has the capacity to grow more cashew because of its potential to adapt to climate change effects, as well as its potential profitability.
But this possible expansion is being hindered by a number of challenges including difficulty in accessing finance, weak organisation of stakeholders and underexploited potential of local processing.
Low yields, insufficient access to improved planting material, and the overall absence of an enabling policy environment are also having a detrimental effect.
The industry has experienced price fluctuations for decades, simply because there is no regulating authority to oversee its operations like the country sees in the cocoa sector.
Facing collapse
Ghana’s cashew sector faces eminent collapse in the near future if steps are not taken to guarantee the farmers a good price for their produce.
Unlike cocoa, cashew nuts do not have a stable price as the price per kilo of cashew nut keeps on fluctuating.
As of May 2020, a kilogram of cashew nuts sold at around Gh¢4.00 ($0.69USD), while the farmers spent over Gh¢6.50 ($1.12USD) to produce that amount; a situation which is discouraging many people from going into cashew farming.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected the cashew business due to a collapse in prices. Prior to the pandemic 1kg of cashew nuts retailed for 10 cedis ($1.73USD), while in February and March they traded at just 2.50 cedis ($0.43USD).
By Richmond Frimpong of Oyerepa FM, reporting for Farming Unearthed. Listen to the Farming Unearthed podcast here.
