Burkina Faso’s government has decided to keep the minimum farmgate price for raw cashew nuts at CFA385 ($0.69) per kilogram for 2026, the same rate as in 2025.
Minister of Agriculture Ismaël Sombié announced the decision on February 21 in Ouagadougou during the launch of the country’s fruit campaigns, Ecofin Agency reported.
This price is lower than those in neighboring countries, with Ivory Coast at $0.79 per kilogram and Ghana at $1.09 per kilogram.
Unlike Burkina Faso, both countries reduced their farmgate prices in 2026 by 6% and 20% due to uncertainty about global demand.
Mr. Sombié emphasized that maintaining the CFA385 price ensures raw cashew supply for local processing units, continuing the government’s 2025 efforts to strengthen domestic processing.
As part of the 2026 campaign, the government introduced a dedicated purchasing window for national processing companies and the National Food Security Stock Management Company (SONAGESS), running from February 21 to April 1.
“During this strategic period, authorities suspend exports in order to ensure priority supply to the local market and support the national industry,” the Burkina Faso Council for Agropastoral and Fisheries Sectors (CBF) said in a statement.
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Ivory Coast, Africa’s largest cashew producer and processor, uses a similar approach to supply domestic factories first before allowing exports.
Burkina Faso implemented a comparable export suspension in March 2025 to guarantee local factories received sufficient raw nuts, lifting the restriction in May once supplies were confirmed.
Despite these efforts, preliminary figures from the independent trade advisory N’kalô, released on February 3, indicate that cashew processing in Burkina Faso dropped by 33% to 10,000 tons in 2025.
Whether the new exclusive purchasing window will boost processing remains uncertain.
Authorities have not yet announced production or processing targets for 2026. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Burkina Faso’s cashew production averaged nearly 115,014 tons per year between 2020 and 2024, peaking at 147,616 tons in 2024.
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Image Credit: Marketforces Africa
