Ghana processes less than a fifth of the cashew it grows, and its processors are pressing the government for support to keep more of that value at home.Timber production data The Association of Cashew Processors Ghana (ACPG) wants buffer stocks of raw nuts, cheaper financing, and tax and energy relief to help its members scale up. The need is plain in the numbers. Ghana harvested about 252,000 tonnes of raw cashew in 2024, but local factories processed only 45,360 tonnes of it, roughly 18 percent, according to figures from the African Cashew Alliance. The association has set a target of processing 85,000 tonnes a year by 2026. Its president, Antonio Manuel Caramelo Raposo, says reaching that would create thousands of jobs, many of them for the young women who make up most of the processing workforce. Processing generates roughly 80 to 200 jobs for every 1,000 tonnes, depending on how mechanised a plant is. The wider prize is larger. The Tree Crops Development Authority estimates Ghana’s cashew sector could earn more than $660 million a year with stronger regulation, more processing, and added value. Its chief executive, Andy Osei Okrah, set out that projection at a stakeholder forum in the Bono Region. The sticking point is raw material. Processors say they cannot secure enough nuts at workable prices because exporters of raw cashew compete for the same supply. The authority is drawing up a national pricing framework meant to steady farm gate prices and balance the interests of farmers, exporters, and processors. Raposo has cast the push as a search for balance rather than a barrier to trade. “Our processors are operating under intense pressure,” he said. Ghana has built one of Africa’s larger cashew industries over two decades, with more than 300,000 farmers growing the crop, and has drawn on partners including GIZ and the World Bank to build processing capacity. Much of that capacity now sits idle for want of raw nuts. Across West Africa, the share of cashew processed locally has climbed from about 8 percent to 25 percent in recent years, though the region still trails processors in Asia.