Poor Price, Middlemen Activities is Affecting Cashew Production- MP for Wenchi
Members of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi in the Bono Region, Hon Seidu Haruna, has called on government to reconsider the new minimum gate price for cashew in the country.
According to him, the new gate price of Cashew as announced by the government is not only inimical to the production of cashew and farmers’ interest but would also discourage the youth who want to venture into the cashew farming.
The government through the Tree Crops Development Authority recently announced the 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 GHC7.00 as against the initial price of GHc8.50 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 MP for Wenchi in an exclusive interview with EXPRESSNEWSGHANA said the new price is in sharp contrast of the earlier price.
“Conditions of cashew farmers will be worsened as the result of the poor pricing regime and the role of Middlemen for the cashew industry,” he observed.
The MP said the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) was established to develop and promote tree crops other than cocoa to diversify the country’s agriculture, much has not been heard about their operations in connection with price-fixing for raw cashew nuts.
Hon Haruna who also owns several acres of cashew farms in his constituency thus entreated the government to step up in fixing the price for raw cashew nuts to ensure all players in the value chain get value for their toil and investment.
“I think the government should relook at the price again, the new price will affect farmers. They invested a lot into it. Some have even taken loans with the expectation the new price will be better than the previous price. But fixing the come out and let the public know the steps they have taken so far towards getting a standardise pricing system for raw cashew nuts.
As it stands, only the executives of the various groupings in the cashew value chain are aware of one or two meetings that have gone on to get a fixed price for the commodity, we need to know,” he demanded.
The 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.
It was expected 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, but the government rather fixed the minimum price at GHS7.00.
In this, the Wenchi lawmaker expressed the concern that some middlemen in the cashew value chain would take advantage to exploit cashew farmers.
He said it was barefaced in the low price, these middlemen hide behind the value chain to offer low prices to the cashew farmers in the constituency for the toil and investment made to produce the cashew.
Most cashew farmers are losing interest in maintaining their cashew plantations due to the exploitation of cashew buyers, cheating them year by year every cashew purchasing season.
The main reason cashew farmers are losing interest in the cultivation of cashew farming in the Wenchi and other cashew growing areas was that middlemen pay a low rate of raw cashew nuts per kilo.
The continued activities of middlemen, Haruna said, are replete with cashew plantations, but the prevailing situation is affecting farmers’ as well as other actors along the cashew value chain.
The cashew nut merchant further noted that foreigners always flood the local market, creating unhealthy competition to push the price of raw nuts up to the disadvantage of processors.
He added that one area in the cashew value chain that remains underutilized is processing, where access to raw cashew nuts for processing has been the main challenge for the processing companies.
The MP therefore called on the government to as a matter of priority 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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