If he wins the 2024 elections, National Democratic Congress flagbearer John Dramani Mahama promises to introduce a breakthrough system to strengthen the local cashew processing business.
Mr Mahama emphasised the importance of agricultural growth and proposed a change in the present practice of transporting raw cashew nuts to India for processing.
He proposed a new system where Ghanaian manufacturers would prepare and package Wenchi’s cashew nuts before exporting them for foreign exchange.
In a speech to a crowd in Wenchi on Friday, he said, “Currently, cashews are harvested and exported to India for processing before distribution to other countries. The Indians profit more from cashews that we have struggled to plant and harvest.”
The NDC presidential candidate pledged to add the pledge to his 2024 platform.
“My leadership intends to introduce cashew processing machinery in the Bono Region, designed for the efficient processing and packaging of cashews for export.” “The goal of this initiative is to keep any cashew profits in the country,” he said to cheers from the crowd.
He asked the residents of Wenchi to vote for him in the next elections in order to make the vision a reality.
Ghana, according to reports, has 14 cashew processing factories with a combined yearly capacity of 65,000 metric tonnes of raw cashews.
While ten of these factories are operational, they account for less than 10% of total yearly cashew production. The remaining processing factories have either halted operations or have entirely shut down.
A variety of obstacles impede the local processing of cashew nuts in Ghana. The inability of local processors to get raw cashew nuts from farmers, worsened by poor transportation infrastructure, is one of the most significant.
