Cashew to be sold at GHC5 Per KG in Jaman north while awaiting official price
Member of Parliament of Jaman North Constituency, Frederick Yaw Ahenkwaa says cashew should be sold at the price of GHC5 per a kilogram
Joseph Marfo 
The delay in regulating the pricing of cashew, one of Ghana’s major non-traditional export crops, is beginning to create tensions between cashew farmers and buyers.
In the Jaman North District of the Bono Region, which produces the chunk of the country’s cashew, farmers are on a collision course with buyers over the pricing of the product.
However, the Member of Parliament of Jaman North Constituency, Frederick Yaw Ahenkwaa in a meeting with the cashew farmers has proposed that the cashew should be sold at the price of GHC5 for a kilo to establish uniform pricing in Jaman North.
He noted that the Tree Crop Develop Authority which is to regulate cashew production in the country has presented a bill to Parliament which is yet to be passed into law to regulate the pricing of cashew in the country.
The District Chief Executive for the Jaman North District, Adane Ankomah called on the farmers to assist the security agencies in the district to arrest individuals who smuggle cashew from Ivory Coast into the country through the unapproved roots.
The General Secretary for Cashew Farmers Association, Mr. Clement Anane however warned the farmers not to sell below the fixed price.
On Tuesday 29th September 2020 the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, officially inaugurated the TCDA in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, where the authority is now headquartered.
The Tree Crops Development Authority is a body established by an Act of Parliament, the Tree Crops Development Authority Act 2019 (Act 1010), as a regulatory structure for six tree crops: Cashew, Shea, Mango, Coconut, rubber, and oil palm in Ghana.
The bill was laid and first read in Parliament on 4th July 2019, after several consultations between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and stakeholders, and referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Food, Agriculture, and Cocoa Affairs. On 14th November 2019, the committee report was discussed on the floor of Parliament and the bill read the second time. The bill went through a period of consideration from 27th November to 2nd December 2019, where there was a clause- by- clause discussion of the bill. It was passed into law on 2nd December 2019 and received presidential assent the same month.
According to the government, whose the law became necessary to help harvest the potential of Ghana’s tree crops industry and become a major economic driver.
Nana Ama Asiedu, Bono Region
