Gensap VenturesCashew processing in Sunyani, GhanaAbout us
A cashew processing company in Sunyani, Bono Region. We have been at this since 2009, and we are in the middle of the biggest change to how we work since we started.
Gensap Ventures began in 2009 as an agricultural business. Cashew processing was the first processing activity we took on, and it became the main one.
That work is still done by hand — cooking, cracking, peeling, and sorting by people rather than machines. It is enough to supply the local market, but it puts a hard ceiling on how much we can take on and how consistent the kernel can be.
We have worked from a single plot in a residential compound, processing around 0.6 tons of raw cashew nut a day, 3 tons a week. We have now secured 3.7 acres in Sunyani West District, built a proper processing hall on it, and installed a full mechanised line: a boiler and steam cookers, a shelling machine and separator, a Borma drying oven, a humidifier, a peeling machine, and vacuum packing.
It is all in place. We have not switched it on yet — commissioning is the next step.
Part of this was funded through GPSCP II, a Swiss-government programme that selected Gensap as one of ten Ghanaian agribusinesses in 2025.
The site
Photographs of our own site, taken during the expansion. Visitors are welcome — buyers, partners, and farmers alike.
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How we work
This is the sequence the new line is built around. Until it is commissioned, the same steps are done by hand.
Raw cashew nuts arrive in jute sacks, are weighed, checked for moisture and defects, and stored.
Nuts are steam-conditioned in pressure vessels fed by our boiler, so the shell separates cleanly.
Cooked nuts are cut and shelled to release the kernel with as few breakages as possible.
Kernels are dried on trays in a steam-heated Borma oven to bring moisture down to a safe, stable level.
Kernels are brought back to around 6 to 7 percent moisture in the humidifier, so the skin releases cleanly and fewer kernels break during peeling.
The testa — the reddish skin — is removed. Kernels can also be supplied in testa, before this step.
Kernels are sorted by hand into whole, butt, split, and piece grades. Grading is done by our team rather than by machine.
Graded kernels are roasted, or ground into paste, depending on the order.
Product is vacuum packed and gas flushed for shelf life, labelled by lot, and loaded for delivery.
The expansion
Ghana grows a great deal of cashew and exports much of it raw. The shelling, grading, and packing — the part that adds the value and employs the people — largely happens somewhere else. Doing that work here is the point of the expansion.
Why it matters locally
Processing near the farms means the work, the wages, and the market for the crop stay in the Bono Region.
The team
Gensap is run by a small team. When you call or message, one of us answers.
Chief Executive Officer
General Manager
Sales Representative
Advisor
16 permanent staff, 14 of them women, plus 6 casual workers.
Credentials
Only what we actually hold. Buyers and partners are welcome to ask for the documents.
Certified by Ghana's Food and Drugs Authority. Buyers can request the certificate.
Registered business, operating from Sunyani Municipal in the Bono Region.
Member of the national body for Ghanaian cashew processors.
Member. Our CEO has both attended and instructed at ACA food safety training programmes.
Member of Ghana's principal industry association.
News
Gensap Ventures was named one of ten Ghanaian agribusinesses selected under the Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme (GPSCP) Phase II, a Swiss-government-funded programme run with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry. The programme committed GH¢157.94 million (CHF 9 million) to strengthening the cashew and oil palm value chains.
Our own announcement of the grant and what it funds at the Sunyani facility.
Background reading
These reports and articles are about the sector we work in. They are useful context for buyers and partners, and they do not mention Gensap.
Find us
NK. 53 Nkwabeng, behind SSNIT Flats, Sunyani. Ghana Post digital address BS-0031-6284. Sole proprietorship, registered with the Registrar General's Department.
Talk to us