Trade Ministry to engage stakeholders in cashew industry

The Policy Adviser at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Frederick Alikpui, has backed calls for interventions to enable local farmers to have good prices to sell raw cashew abroad as their foreign counterparts.

Speaking on GBC’s Current Affairs Programme, Talking Point, he said the Ministry will engage the Cashew Association, farmers and other stakeholders to work out an operational modality including signing a memorandum of understanding to promote the cashew industry.

Meanwhile, a cashew farmer at Wenchi, Tony Aidoo is calling on the Ministry of Trade and Industry to support the cashew industry, since production keeps decreasing due to unavailability of infrastructure.

He said Ghana currently produces 70 thousand tonnes of raw cashew which is not enough to boost the industry.

Mr Aidoo said the industry can grow if proper measures are put in place to make the sector more lucrative.

For his part, the President of the Cashew Industry Association, Winfred Osei Owusu, stressed the need for the formulation of a more comprehensive policy that will have interest of the ordinary Ghanaian cashew farmer at heart.

He appealed to government to solve some of the key problems bedeviling the cashew sector, particularly controlling pest on the farms through subsidised mass spraying.