Food & Beverage Industry
The food and beverage processing sector refers to the manufacturing, processing and preservation of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, oils and fats; manufacture of dairy products; manufacture of grain mill products, starches and starch products and prepared animals feeds; manufacture of other food products (e.g. bread, sugar, chocolate, pasta, coffee, nuts and spices); and the manufacture of bottled and canned soft drinks, fruit juices, beer, wines, etc.
Ghana is seeking to establish sugar processing plants in order to cut down on imported products. There are favourable conditions for large-scale sugarcane cultivation in areas such as Agona Swedru in the central region, Tarkwa in the western region, and parts of the northern savannah Agro-Ecological Zones.
Demand for sugar is rising at the rate of 2.3% annually, creating a huge local and regional market for potential investors. Pharmaceutical and beverage industries are other potential markets for sugar and its by-products. Some of the other areas with potential include commercial farming of sugar and provision of services such as irrigation, harvesting, consultancy and marketing.
Investors are now eyeing cashew nut processing in Ghana as an opportunity to earn more money and create jobs. It turns out more and more people are going nuts over African cashew, and new processors with international standards are eager to get on board.
Cashew was originally grown in much of West Africa for reforestation and to prevent soil erosion.
Ghana’s cashew industry has for a long time exported raw nuts, earning US$21.06 million in 2007 on 38,300 metric tonnes. That is about to change with predictions that the country could increase revenue by 50% by processing raw nuts locally.
