Announcement of Cashew Minimum Producer Price for the 2023 Crop Season

As delivered.

Honourable Regional Minister, District Chief Executives, Members of the Board of Tree Crops Development Authority, Cashew Actors, (Farmers, Aggregators, Processors, Exporters) Regional Agric. Director, invited guests, members of the media, Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, all other protocols observed:

The Honourable Minister for Food and Agriculture has nominated my good self, Hon. Yaw Frimpong Addo, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture and MP for Manso Adubia, A/R, to announce the minimum farmgate price for cashew for the 2023 Crop Season, a price duly computed and arrived at by the Tree Crops Development Authority in direct consultation with all relevant actors and stakeholders within the cashew value chain.

May I humbly remind us that Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) is a legal institution established by an act of Parliament to regulate and develop the production, processing, pricing, and marketing of six tree crops namely: Cashew, Oil Palm, Rubber, Shea, Coconut, and Mango. The Authority is therefore leading the agenda for the diversification of Ghana's agriculture by putting in place policies and programmes to guide research, production, processing, pricing and marketing of the six (6) stated tree crops with enormous agricultural, economic, export and forex earning potential for Ghana.

Since its inauguration by His Excellency, The President of Ghana, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akuffo Addo, on 29^th September 2020, the Authority has achieved the following:

1. supplied freely to farmers, three million seven hundred elite seedlings of coconut, mango, shea and cashew.

2. developed and launched a five-year strategic framework (2022–2027) with the goal to improve policy and regulatory environments conducive to leverage both public and private sector investments in order to stimulate inclusive and sustainable growth in the tree crop sub-sector.

3. established a digital framework for traceable supply chain and sustainable financing mechanisms with the aim to enhance the operational capacity of TCDA and the value chain actors of the six selected tree crops.

4. Developed pricing mechanisms for cashew, oil palm, and rubber with the objective to incentivize producers to sustainably increase production.

THE MINIMUM PRICE FOR 2023 SEASON

The Cashew Pricing Model established last year makes the following assumptions for the 2023 crop season: annual Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) exports of 350,000 Metric tons, as well as 40,000 Metric tons of RCN to be processed into kernels for export and the local market.

The model sets the following parameters to arrive at the minimum farm gate price as follows:

1. Global Raw Cashew Nut FOB Price per metric ton (Average) of US$1,125.00 at 49 kernel output Ratio per 180 Nut Count, discounted to US$1,075 at 46 kernel output ratio per 190 Nut Count.
2. A projected dollar exchange rate of ghs 10.00: US$ 1.00
3. Raw Cashew Nut moisture content of not more than 10%

This model assumes and determines the costs and margins of all the activities of prime Actors from the farm gate to the port or processing factory.

Anchored on the above and the economic assumptions of ceteris paribus the model assumes a minimum farmgate price of cashew for the 2023 crop season as GHS 8.455 (in essence, GH 8.50)/ kg to compensate farmers for planting, pruning and thinning, picking, denutting, drying, and bagging costs to be borne by them.

I assure you that the model is very compatible and efficiently adjusts prices for any economic changes and movements in the above variables. So, this price will operate for the first two months, and if there are any significant changes in the key parameters, the price announced will be adjusted accordingly.

We wish all actors and stakeholders well and may we have a fruitful and bumper harvest for the 2023 Crop Season.

THANK YOU.