Cashew Crisis: Usibras Imports Ivorian Kernels to Keep Ghanaian Factory Afloat as Jobs Hang in Balance

One of West Africa's largest cashew processing investments is turning to neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire for semi-processed kernels to keep its Ghanaian factory running, in a stark admission that the country's domestic raw nut market has become unworkable for local manufacturers.

Usibras, which built a $15 million processing facility at Prampram in 2013 and began operations the following year, has resorted to importing borma kernels—cashew nuts already shelled and dried but still retaining their inner skin—for final peeling, processing and packaging in Ghana. The emergency supply pivot underscores a deepening structural crisis in a sector where roughly 95 per cent of Ghana's raw cashew crop leaves the country unprocessed, largely to Vietnam and India .

The company purchased only 6,500 tonnes of raw cashew nuts during the last harvest season, a mere 19 per cent of its installed capacity of 35,000 tonnes per annum. Operating at less than one-fifth of potential has placed immense financial strain on the facility, forcing Usibras to halve its workforce from 700 to 350 employees.

A Regulatory Playing Field Tilted Against Processors

Usibras leadership points to a regulatory framework that permits raw cashew nuts to be exported from Ghana with only a nominal levy of GH¢92 per tonne payable to the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA). Foreign buying agents, often backed by advance off-season financing, purchase nuts directly from farming communities at prices domestic processors cannot match, then export them without incurring local operational overheads, power tariffs or labour costs .

The pricing distortion is compounded by Ghana's mandated minimum producer price of GH¢12.00 per kilogram, which sits more than 50 per cent above the sub-regional range of GH¢7.15 to GH¢8.00 per kilogram. While intended to protect farmers, the floor has effectively priced local processors out of the market, as their raw material costs exceed what the global kernel price ceiling of approximately US$4,500 per tonne can sustain once local operating expenses are layered on .

The consequences have been visible for months. In September 2026, the Association of Cashew Processors Ghana petitioned the government for legislative and financial support as shutdowns loomed . A stakeholder roundtable in Accra convened by the ACPG and Cashew Council Ghana, with backing from GIZ, called for a single national cashew policy and measures to raise production from roughly 260,000 tonnes to 400,000 tonnes .

Regional Contrast Sharpens the Stakes

The irony of Usibras importing from Côte d'Ivoire is not lost on industry observers. Ghana's western neighbour has aggressively scaled its domestic processing capacity to 795,000 tonnes in 2026, supported by agro-industrial zones, tax exemptions and access guarantees, and now hosts 93 active factories with 830,000 tonnes of installed capacity . Ghana, by contrast, processes less than 6 per cent of its annual raw nut output locally .

President John Dramani Mahama has publicly demanded an end to raw cashew exports, declaring in February 2026: "We will no longer export raw cashew" and urging foreign traders to build processing capacity in Ghana or exit the market . His government has set a target of processing between 50 and 60 per cent of tree crop commodities locally each year, backed by a $200 million World Bank-supported Tree Crop Diversification Project . Yet the policy architecture—a high producer price floor without supply retention mechanisms or border protections—has thus far achieved the opposite of its stated aim .

US$17 Million at Stake

Should Usibras withdraw entirely from Ghana's raw cashew market in 2027, as company officials have warned is possible if farm-gate prices remain unsustainable, the direct loss in purchasing expenditure is estimated at US$17 million—money that would otherwise flow into cashew-growing communities in Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and beyond. More than 300,000 farmers are directly involved in cashew cultivation in Ghana, supporting a further 200,000 people in buying, transport and retail .

Industry stakeholders are urging targeted interventions: differential export duties on raw nuts, local processing quotas, and utility subsidies to level the playing field. The TCDA has itself advocated for a raw cashew export levy . Without decisive action, they warn, Ghana risks cementing its status as a mere exporter of low-value raw agricultural commodities while its industrial processing capacity idles—and eventually disappears.

Usibras has stressed that its position is not a withdrawal of support for Ghanaian farmers but a reflection of market conditions that have made domestic procurement economically unviable. The company's Prampram facility, when fully operational, was designed to process cashew nuts into finished products for local and international markets—a vision of value addition that now hangs by a thread.