Cashew stakeholders in Accra for festival

Stakeholders in the cashew industry would on Monday, September 16 descend on Accra for a four-day Cashew Festival and Expo 2013, event aimed at helping participants to develop the value chain process.

The event, which is being organised by the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), is expected to help cashew farmers, processors, traders, exporters, service providers, retailers, equipment manufacturers and bankers to fashion out innovative ways to improve and sustain the industry.

It would be with the theme: “Value Chain and Gains-Focusing on the Potential to Leverage Profit in Each Sector of the Cashew Industry in New Markets.”

Speaking ahead of the event at the weekend in Accra, Ms Xenia Defontaine, Public Relations Manager of ACA said: “The conference and exhibition segments of the event promises to be exciting and informative as it will give farmers the platform to explore innovative business prospects in the industry such as in the areas of beekeeping and production of cashew-apple juice.”

She said lots of investors are interested in doing business in Africa and in Ghana in particular. Ms Defontaine said Ghana has the reputation of being one of Africa’s shining potential of earning the position as the leading quality-cashew-producing country.

Mr Kofi Humado, Minister of Food and Agriculture and Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Trade and Industry are billed to attend the event. Ghana produced more than 20,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew nuts in 2012, with the production largely centred in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The country is considered to be the hub for trading in cashew from neighbouring countries including Cote’d Ivoire and Burkina Faso.

More than 80,000 metric tonnes of raw cashew nut was exported in 2011. On the processing side, Ghana has an installed processing capacity of more than 18,000 metric tonnes.