German Development Cooperation, KOA partner to turn cashew apples into jobs, incomes and investment

The German Development Cooperation has teamed up with Swiss-Ghanaian company KOA to turn Ghana's plentiful cashew apples into a lucrative industry, generating new income for farmers, women, and rural enterprises. Launched on September 16, 2026, the initiative aims to reduce the massive waste of cashew apples, which account for up to 90% of the fruit's mass, after harvest.

The KOA Community Mobile Processing Unit approach will enable communities to collect and process cashew apples near farms, producing juice, concentrate, and dried products for local and European markets. By reducing post-harvest losses, the project will add value closer to the source and connect community-level production to growing markets.

The program will collaborate with women's groups, cooperatives, and farmer organizations, focusing on developing processing skills, strengthening market links, and creating a replicable production model. GIZ Ghana's Head of the Private Sector and Innovation Promotion Programme, Arlett Stojanovic, highlighted how the partnership demonstrates how development initiatives can generate commercial opportunities.

For farmers, the initiative promises an extra income stream from the same harvest. Women and community enterprises could take on roles in processing, quality management, and value addition. KOA's Director of Production and Operations, Daniel Otu, sees the cashew apple as an untapped resource with the potential to bolster Ghana's cashew industry.

By processing cashew apples closer to farmers, the partnership aims to help communities capture more value from their produce and create products that can compete in local and international markets. The collaboration also seeks to attract investors and businesses to Ghana's cashew value chain by showcasing a commercially viable model that can be scaled by the private sector.