Editorial: TCDA must aim at an annual producer price like cocoa for cashew

Following consultations with industry stakeholders, the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) has set  a minimum producer price of GH¢12 per kilogramme for raw cashew nuts (RCN) for the 2025/2026 crop season.

This price was approved under TCDA’s mandate in the Tree Crops Development Authority Act, 2019 (Act 1010) and its implementing regulations, L.I. 2471 (2023), which empower the authority to regulate pricing across the tree crops value chain.

Government subsequently approved GH¢12 per kilogramme as the minimum producer price for this season. According to TCDA,  the agreed price reflects a shared objective of maintaining farmer profitability while supporting a competitive domestic cashew market.

Since Ghana is among Africa’s leading producers of raw cashew nuts, the consensus, according to the Authority, reflects a shared commitment by all value chain actors to fairness, improved farmer motivation and maintenance of a competitive domestic cashew market, while also providing predictability for traders, processors and exporters.

Cashew farmers’ reaction is said to be mixed. Indeed, cashew farmers in Bono Region have long called for a raw cashew nuts (RCNs) annual fixed producer price, saying the current system of setting only a minimu price leaves them vulnerable to manipulation by aggregators.

The common problem is weighing scale manipulation in local RCNs, especially common with itinerant buyers who move from farm to farm purchasing nuts at the farmgate. The situation has encouraged the theft of nuts in some communities.

Hence, TCDA must intensify monitoring in this regard and clamp down on unregistered buyers to prevent income losses. Farmers continue to grapple with volatile prices, limited access to market information and weak bargaining power.

Ghana is the world’s third-biggest exporter of unprocessed cashew nuts, behind Ivory Coast in first place and Cambodia in second. It grows about 180,000 tonnes of cashews annually and more than 80% is exported in raw, unshelled form.

Stakeholders agreed that the Minimum Producer Price will be reviewed periodically to reflect changes in market conditions and key underlying parameters, including global prices and exchange rate movements.

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