The Cashew Council Ghana launched in Techiman

Stakeholders of the cashew sector have on Thursday 15th October 2020, launched the Cashew Council Ghana (CCG), with support of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) to become the apex body of the Ghanaian cashew sector, in Techiman.

 

 The CCG is made up of actors of the cashew sector with membership from the various players of the cashew value chain and will be a platform for cashew actors to advocate for policy reforms. Cashew farmers, processors, and traders will all be represented on the Council with headquarters in Sunyani, the Bono Regional capital.

 

The Council is responsible for reorganizing the cashew sector and now serves as the mouthpiece of the sector at the industry level. It is also mandated to “maintain and present a unified front” for the actors of the tree crop subsector while also advocating for policy reforms in the sector. 

 

Presenting on the global trend of the cashew sector at the event, Finance and Advocacy Manager of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), Ms. Reine Dehode, explained that West Africa’s production of the crop has doubled over the years from 800, 000 MT in 2009 to an estimated 1.7 million MT in 2020. In Ghana, she said cashew production has grown from 22, 000 to an estimated 105, 000 MT in the same period. This growth, according to her, calls for a proper organization and regulation of the sector. She emphasizes that most African Countries are introducing policies to regulate the sector.

 

The outdooring of the CCG comes few weeks, after the President of the Republic officially inaugurated the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) to regulate cashew and five other tree crops in Ghana. Ms. Dehode believed the CCG will complement the newly inaugurated Authority in properly organizing and regulating the sector. “The ACA is confident that the CCG will help the TCDA, which was inaugurated last month, to develop the sector,” she said.

 

The Executive Secretary of the Association of Cashew Processors Ghana (ACPG), Ms. Yayra A. Amedzro explained that the establishment of the CCG was a requirement of the technical committee that set up the TCDA. According to her, the CCG is duly registered at the Registrar General’s Department and will now “serve as an umbrella body for the cashew sector”.   

 

Cashew producer and member of the TCDA Board, Chief Adams Tampuri, expressed gratification in the establishment of both the CCG and the TCDA. He explained that the politics of international trade means that international policies are mostly favorable to sectors that are well organized, properly regulated, and developed. He believed the Board of the TCDA will work for hand in hand with the CCG and other subcommittees to implement policies in the interest of the industry. For him, the establishment of these bodies is “the greatest things that have happened to the cashew sector”.    

 

For Mr. Charles Kumah from Sampa, a local cashew processor and a member of the General Council of the Association of Cashew Processors Ghana (ACPG), the CCG will serve as both a mother organization for all actors of the sector and also as a team of technocrats for the TCDA. He was optimistic that for once, the various actor associations, including ACPG, cashew producer associations like the Federation of Cashew Farmers (FCF), and the Cashew Farmers Association (CFA), as well as trader’s associations like the Ghana Cashew Exporters will have one front in the CCG. This, he believed will bring about “face to face and impassionate discussions” among all actors of the sector, especially with farmers who mostly think they are cheated by processors and buyers.

 

President of the Cashew Traders Association, Alex Owusu Adjei, believed the Cashew sector is in positive standing under the regulation of the TCDA and the organization of the CCG. He believed the CCG presents an opportunity for all actors to be included in decision making within the sector.

“I see a very positive future for the cashew sector with these new bodies,” he said.  

 

The CCG is a corporate body with perpetual succession with the power to sue and be sued.