[ 2014-07-20 ]

Cashew generated 170 million dollars in 2013
Sunyani, July 19, GNA – The cashew industry
generated 170 million dollars in the form of
foreign exchange earnings for the economy in
2013.
Mr Justice Samuel Adjei, Deputy Brong-Ahafo
Regional Minister who made this known in Sunyani
said the industry is the largest contributor to
non-traditional export crops.

The Deputy Regional Minister was speaking at the
closing session of a five-day master training
programme, for stakeholders in the cashew sector,
drawn Ghana, Burkina-Faso, Togo, Benin, Cote
D’Iviore, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Attended by 60 participants, the training pogramme
was organised by the African Cashew Initiative
(ACi) in collaboration with African Cashew
Alliance with support from the Ministry of Food
and Agriculture and the Cocoa Research Institute
of Ghana.

It was aimed at developing a pool of certified
cashew experts in West Africa, with in-depth
knowledge on the cashew value chain.

Mr Adjei said the impact of cashew on poverty
reduction and the environment in the Savanna
regions has been significant.

He entreated investors who are interested in the
cashew industry to come into the region and take
advantage of the suitable land and vegetation that
promote the cultivation of the highly economic
crop.

Mr Siegfried Leffler, Country Director of German
Development Cooperation, one of the funding
agencies, said ACi has so far trained about
300,000 cashew farmers in the participating
countries with increase of their annual income by
12 million Euros.

In addition, he said 20 processors in West-Africa
had received technical and business advisory
support in its build up phase and employing more
than 5,000 people.

Mr Leffler noted that the challenges in the young
African cashew sector are multiple and needed the
efforts of all actors – producers, processors,
buyers, governments, NGOs and expert services.

He explained that the cooperation would continue
to fulfill its core business capacity development
for African countries which include building
individual knowledge, as well as institutional
development and networking.

Ann-Christin Berger, Communication Manager, ACi
said the first two sessions of the Master Training
Programme were successfully held in
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso in December 2013 and
Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire in April 2014.

“At the heart of this comprehensive Master
Training Programme are facilitators and technical
experts who teach, evaluate and potentially
re-design each training session according to
participants’ needs,” she added.

Participants were presented with certificates
after going through topics such as the economics
of cashew production and cashew processing,
development of improved planting material, data
collection methods for proper monitoring and
evaluation as well as alternative and innovative
media for disseminating information and collecting
data.

Source - GNA

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