MPs from Bono/Bono East Call for Review of Cashew Gate Price of GHS7.00 for Farmers
Members of Parliament (MPs) within the cashew farming enclave of Bono and Bono East Regions have called on government to review the new minimum gate price for cashew in the area.
According to the MPs, Cashew farmers in the Regions are losing their investments and there was the need for the government to put in measures to increase the cashew minimum farm gate price for the 2023/24 season.
The MPs were reacting to the government through the Tree Crops Development Authority recent announcement of minimum price of Cashew in the country.
The new price, which takes effective from January 2024, fixed a kilogram of cashew at a minimum price of GHC7 as against the initial price of GHc8.5 per kilo.
According to William Agyapong Quaittoo, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the Tree Crop Development Authority, the minimum price was fixed as a result of happening in the international market for the product.
But the Bono/Bono East MPs at a press briefing in parliament said the new price is in sharp contrast to the previous price.
Spokesperson for the caucus, Hon Frederick Yaw Ahenkwah, MP for Jaman said government in 2022, announced the minimum farm gate price for cashew as ¢8.50 per kilo from the ¢5 per kilo in the 2022 crop season.
He said as a result, the farmers were expecting that, all thing been equal, the government would have fixed the minimum price at either GHS9.00 or GHS10.00 to help boost their production.
Currently, the MPs said the cashew farmers are running at a loss with the GHS7.00 farm gate price as a result of high inflation and cost of production, stressing that, the producer price of cashew has seen a sharp decline from the initial GHS10.00 to GHS7.00, early this year thereby affecting the farmers producing capacity.
The Bono /Bono East MP therefore called on the government to as a matter of urgency review the price upwards for the interest of the farmer’s effort to boost capacity and the government revenue in return.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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