Ghana is trying to build a second farm export engine alongside cocoa, and its tree crops regulator is using licences, floor prices and traceability rules to get there.
The Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), set up under the Tree Crops Development Authority Act, 2019 (Act 1010), regulates six crops: cashew, coconut, oil palm, rubber, mango and shea. Cocoa sits outside its remit, under the Ghana Cocoa Board. Chief Executive Officer Dr Andy Osei Okrah has set a target of about US$12 billion in annual revenue from the six crops by 2030, and has said they collectively have the strength to do far more for the economy than cocoa.
Whether that happens depends less on planting than on whether Ghana can prove where its crops come from, keep quality high and capture more of the value at home.
Enforcement first
The TCDA has moved from promotion to policing. At a stakeholder forum in Wa, Okrah warned that buying below statutory floor prices, trading without an operational licence and fronting for foreign buyers could lead to arrest and prosecution, as the authority rolls out its powers region by region under Legislative Instrument (L.I.) 2471. A digital licensing and traceability system is meant to enforce quality and moisture standards.
A mandatory conveyance certificate system now covers the movement of the six crops and ties into the Forestry Commission’s road checkpoints. Some traders have called it an extra burden. Okrah has rejected that, describing it as a tool to curb illegal trade and improve traceability. The authority has also deployed its first cohort of compliance and enforcement officers in the cashew trade.
Why proof of origin matters
Buyers in Europe and elsewhere increasingly demand evidence that commodities were not grown on deforested land and were produced without exploitation. For smallholder crops such as cashew and shea, which are often gathered across scattered plots and pass through several traders before export, that is hard to show. Okrah has named data and traceability among the authority’s top priorities, saying the sector needs reliable information on farmers, farms, production and trade.
Keeping more value at home
Ghana has long shipped most of its raw cashew nuts abroad, much of it to Asian processors. Under the government’s Feed the Industry initiative, L.I. 2471 allows the authority to reserve a share of raw materials for local processors. Okrah has also pushed commercial use of the cashew apple, usually discarded, and courted investors at the Ghana-UK Investment Summit in London in June, pointing to a global shea market projected at US$5.5 billion by 2033.
At the TCDA’s first summit and exhibition this year, President John Dramani Mahama announced a US$200 million government commitment to tree crop processing, productivity and private investment. The authority said the event drew about US$500 million in expressions of investor interest and outlined plans for 16,000 hectares of new plantations spread across all 16 regions.
Risks
Expansion brings exposure. Okrah has warned of climate change, pests and disease, citing powdery mildew in some cashew-growing areas. And floor prices only help farmers if buyers can be made to respect them in remote districts where the authority’s officers are thin on the ground.
The authority has said a farm inputs project launched at Asante Mampong in August will run from 2026 to 2032.
