Cashew potential to rival cocoa

Mr. Kennedy Osei Nyarko, Deputy-Minister for Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in charge of Perennial Crops, has said government recognises the importance of cashew and the potential it holds for rivalling cocoa - hence launch of the 10-year Cashew Development Plan to expand production and promote competitiveness of the cashew value chain.

“Cashew is currently Ghana’s leading non-traditional agricultural export crop, raking in about US$197million revenue in 2016. This constituted about 53 percent of the total revenues of US$371million received from the non-traditional agricultural export sub-sector,” he stated.

He said this at a five-day Master Training Programme (MTP) for cashew sector players with 77 cashew experts from 12 African countries - including Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Togo, Benin and Sierra Leone. The programme was designed to develop cashew experts endowed with knowledge and skill in the cashew value chain in order to become change-makers.

The programme, which has trained over 250 experts in the previous edition, was organised by ComCashew in partnership with the ACA and with support from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Cocoa Research Institute Ghana.

Mr. Nyarko explained that the Cashew sector will have a Development Board to provide direction for implementation of the plan.

Government, he said, is also in a tripartite cooperation with Germany and Brazil aimed at complementing technical contributions and applying the knowledge, skills and experiences of the three countries to their cashew industries.

There is a need for strong commitment by governments through policy and other interventions to optimise benefits of the crop, and knowledge-sharing to sustain momentum in the industry, he remarked.

Ms. Rita Weidinger, Executive Director of the Competitive Cashew Initiative (ComCashew) - formerly the African Cashew Initiative, said though Ghana has made strides in development of the cashew sector, the regulatory framework is not yet such that the processing sector can be competitive and needs to be addressed.

She explained that while there are 12 processing factories in Ghana, only three are currently functional.

She indicated that regulation should cover areas like licencing traders in cashew, with minimum standards in order to sanitise the market. It should also cover quality standards for the cashew, both raw and processed, as it will determine the product’s price on both the domestic and international markets.

“Another area of regulation would be to certify improved planting materials. Farmers should have quality planting materials, and they should be certified.”

She stated, however, that the industry in Ghana is on the right track - with several interventions by the ministry and partners which will see the sector overtaking the cocoa sector as a major export commodity in some 20 years.

Interventions focusing on research and development of improved planting material, initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cocoa Research Institute, she said, have led to Ghana becoming one of the highest producers of cashew in the sub-region - producing about 700 kilos per hectare, compared to between 300 and 500 kilos per hectare in the sub-region.

“If we continue with these strides, with the new commitment of government, then the sky is the limit; Ghana can be the centre of excellence for the cashew sector,” she said, adding that the process for the regulations is already underway by government and its partners.

Mr. Ernest Mintah, Managing Director of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), indicated that increasing processing of cashew from the current less than 10 percent processed to about 25 percent will have a tremendous impact on poverty reduction, as it will generate over US$100million in household income for rural families in Africa .

“Without doubt, cashew has gradually become the ’crop of the moment’ in Africa. Africa is now the largest producer of raw cashew nuts, accounting for more than half of the world’s production.

“Processing is still a challenge that remains at less than 10%, but even at this level it has translated into substantial wealth and employment gains for millions of families in Africa.

“One can only imagine what the result will be if processing is further increased in Africa. It is estimated that a further increase of 25% in value-added cashew products would have a tremendous impact on poverty reduction, generating over US$100million in household income for rural families,” he said.

Two million grafted cashew seedlings

As part of implementing the 10-year Cashew Development Plan (2017-2027), the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in collaboration with the Cashew Industry Association of Ghana (CIAG), is expected to produce over two million grafted cashew seedlings annually for onward distribution to farmers in all cashew-growing communities across the country to boost production of the crop.

The plan is for the country to increase production of raw cashew nuts from 70,000 metric tonnes to 300,000mt; increase processing capacity from 65,000mt to 2000,000mt; as well as promote marketing of cashew by-products, among other things.

To this end, GEPA has given GH¢1.6million to CIAG for development of the improved cashew seedlings and the pilot phase of a mass spraying exercise for some 30,000 hectares of cashew plantation.

The CIAG, in turn, contracted the private cashew nursery operators to assist in the development of grafted seedlings.