Ghana Agribusiness Playbook← Oil Palm
An industrial palm oil mill with fresh fruit bunches on the ramp
Oil Palm · Pillar 05

Cost and Returns

There are three main ways to make money in oil palm, growing, mini-milling and medium-milling, and they need very different cheques. An artisanal mill pulls only about 11 percent oil from a tonne of fruit while an industrial one clears 20, nearly doubling the revenue from bunches that already exist.
Cost and Returns · Pillar 05

There are three main ways to make money in oil palm. Below are what each costs and what each returns, followed by a plain cost-cutting analysis of where a Ghanaian palm oil business loses money and how to stop it. Where no current Ghana field budget has been published, the figures are estimates that show the shape of the economics; for small processors, a 2024 field survey in the Eastern Region now gives measured costs and margins1.

Fresh fruit bunches on the ramp of an industrial palm oil mill
Extraction before expansion
The money is in the mill: chase extraction before more fruit.
US$359 vs 180
a small mill's cost a tonne of oil in 2011, against about US$180 if the same fruit gave twice the oil
11 to 20%
the extraction lever that nearly doubles oil from the same fruit
~26%
the internal rate of return projected for a medium mill in a 2019 feasibility study

🌴 Three ways in, three very different cheques 🌴

The three main ways into oil palm, and the capital, return and payback of each
Figure 16 The three main ways into oil palm, and the capital, return and payback of each
What this shows

Grower figures are costed in Table 7 at September 2026 prices. The mill figures are modelled projections from a 2019 feasibility study and a Nigerian modelling study, so treat them as a guide to the shape of each business.

US$3.6m
capital for a proposed 10 t/h mill, with a projected 3.7-year payback2
26 to 40%
the modelled return of a Nigerian cluster mill, biogas to diesel5

There is no single oil palm business. There are at least three, and they need very different amounts of money, patience and skill. A smallholder grows fresh fruit bunches and sells them. A mini-mill buys bunches and squeezes out oil. A medium mill does the same at industrial scale. The returns can be similar while the cheques differ widely.

The mill numbers are feasibility and modelling projections resting on an older price deck. A proposed medium, 10-tonne-an-hour mill for the Golden Star plantations in Western Region was projected in a feasibility study at a capital cost of about US$3.6 million, an internal rate of return of about 26 percent and a payback of about 3.7 years, assuming crude palm oil at US$740 a tonne and fruit at about US$102 a tonne2. Both prices are now well above those assumptions: crude palm oil averaged about US$1,117 a tonne in August 20263 and the September 2026 minimum fruit price is GH¢1,714.40 a tonne, about US$1504. A Nigerian study modelled a small cluster mill handling about 2,000 tonnes of bunches a year: with a 100 percent loan, the biogas-powered version gave an internal rate of return of about 26 percent (payback 3.6 years) and the diesel version about 40 percent (payback 2.3 years), on Nigerian prices and wages5. The grower’s return, by contrast, is a per-hectare margin that only turns positive after the immature valley of Pillar 4, and its cost lines are estimates.

🌴 Ghana makes palm oil dear, and that is the opportunity 🌴

Before counting profit, count cost, because Ghana has a cost problem. In the 2011 Master Plan, a typical small-scale Ghanaian mill spent about US$359 to make a tonne of crude palm oil and a medium estate (Benso’s 2005 to 2009 accounts) more than US$600, against roughly US$300 to 350 in Malaysia and Indonesia at the time6. Asian costs have since risen: IOI, a leading Malaysian planter, expected costs of about RM2,000 to 2,100 a tonne in 2025, roughly US$470 to 4907. On those figures, the estate cost gap helped imported oil undercut local oil on price. But the same source shows the way out: if a small mill doubled the oil it recovers from the same fruit, its unit cost would roughly halve, to about US$180 a tonne; scaling up the mill instead adds fixed costs, and MASDAR put a larger mill at about US$250 to 300 a tonne6.

There is an opportunity in this. Ghana's high cost comes from low extraction, sub-scale mills, costly transport and expensive finance, every one of which can be cut. The businesses that cut them earn a margin and the right to compete with imports on price as well as freshness.

Inside those costs, the pattern is consistent. For a small processor, fresh fruit is about 70 percent of variable cost and labour about 20 percent8. The GSOPP feasibility study assumed bunches at about US$102 a tonne and milling at about US$42 a tonne of crude palm oil2; the fruit price is now much higher, with the Authority’s September 2026 minimum at GH¢1,714.40 a tonne, about US$1504. A survey of 142 small processors in Assin North and South found a gross margin of about GH¢197 a batch, almost all of it from the oil, with the kernel adding only about GH¢58. A newer 2024 survey of 150 processors in the Eastern Region put the gross margin at about GH¢241 per tonne of bunches processed and the return on investment at about 17 percent1.

What it cost to make a tonne of crude palm oil in Ghana against Malaysia and Indonesia
Figure 17 What it cost to make a tonne of crude palm oil in Ghana (2005 to 2011 data) against Malaysia and Indonesia (2011 and 2025)
What this shows

In 2011 a Ghanaian estate’s cost was nearly twice the Asian average, while a typical small-scale mill was only about 10 percent above it. Doubling the oil recovered from the same fruit roughly halves the small mill’s unit cost6.

~70%
of a small processor's variable cost is fresh fruit
GH¢1,714.40
the September 2026 minimum price for a tonne of fruit

🌴 A grower’s hectare at 2026 prices 🌴

Ghana has published line-item budgets, but they are old: a University of Ghana study counted the labour days and fertiliser a hectare needs9, and a 2018 survey of 400 plots measured costs and profits in both chains10. Pricing those quantities at 2025 and 2026 prices gives the budget in Table 7. Labour is shown two ways, because no 2026 market day rate for farm work was found: hired labour at the Fairtrade living wage of GH¢121.80 a day11 and family labour at the 2026 national minimum wage of GH¢21.7712.

Table 7: One hectare of oil palm at September 2026 prices, with hired or family labour
Stage or lineWhat it coversHired labour (GH¢)Family labour (GH¢)
Establishment, year 0clearing and planting, 83 labour days; 148 certified seedlings at GH¢12; 89 kg of fertiliser12,6804,380
Each of years 1 and 242 labour days; 222 kg of fertiliser7,1402,920
Year 3, first small harvests45 labour days; 444 kg of fertiliser9,5004,980
Mature year, cost888 kg of NPK (about GH¢7,990); 44 upkeep days; 12 harvest days14,8109,210
Mature year, revenue12 tonnes of fruit at GH¢1,714.40 a tonne20,57020,570
Mature-year marginbefore land, finance and pest control5,76011,360
Break-even yieldtonnes of fruit a hectare a year8.45.3

Sources: Labour days and fertiliser quantities from Nuertey (1999) and Rhebergen et al. (2020); seedling price of about GH¢12 each for a bulk order, against about GH¢27 at market price, from "Gold Fields Foundation Sets Up Eco Palms GH" (2025); NPK at GH¢450 a 50 kg bag from AfricaFertilizer Watch (2025); fruit price from Tree Crops Development Authority (2026a); calculated in the Oil Palm Cost and Returns Model v2.91314154

With every day of labour paid, a well-fertilised hectare pays only above about 8.4 tonnes of fruit, and Ghana’s average is about 8 tonnes16, so a grower at the national average who hires labour and buys fertiliser at full price barely breaks even at the minimum price; at 6 tonnes the same hectare loses about GH¢3,800 a year. Fertiliser is the biggest single line in a mature year, about GH¢8,000 a hectare at 2025 retail prices. What makes the crop pay for most growers today is family labour, cheaper fertiliser and, above all, yield: at the 17.6 tonnes reached in the best-management trials, the hired-labour margin rises to about GH¢14,700. The government switched from subsidised to free fertiliser for the 2026 season, although the announcement did not say whether oil palm growers qualify17.

GH¢12,680
to establish one hectare with hired labour, or GH¢4,380 with family labour
8.4 t
the break-even yield a hectare with hired labour (5.3 t with family labour); Ghana's average is about 8 t

🌴 Inflation and a moving market 🌴

Costs and prices also move with the wider economy, in both directions. Inflation eased from 23.5 percent in January 2025 to 3.2 percent in March 2026, the lowest reading since the consumer price index was rebased in 2021, then edged up to 5.0 percent by August 2026, with food inflation at 3.0 percent181920. Much of what an oil palm business buys is imported, including fertiliser (above all potash), agrochemicals, mill machinery and spare parts, so its cedi cost follows the exchange rate. The cedi lost about 9.5 percent against the US dollar in January to September 202621, and the World Bank expects fertiliser prices to rise about 31 percent in 2026, with urea about 60 percent above 20252223. The same currency move also lifts revenue, because the Tree Crops Development Authority sets the monthly fruit price from the dollar price of crude palm oil at the Bank of Ghana rate: the minimum rose from GH¢1,586.66 a tonne in April 2026 to GH¢1,714.40 in September424. Borrowing has become cheaper: the Bank of Ghana held its policy rate at 14 percent in September 2026, and the average bank lending rate fell to about 15.9 percent in August 202625. A budget that holds one season can be wrong the next, and a fall in the world oil price can arrive in the same year as a rise in fertiliser costs. Re-cost inputs every season, keep a buffer against both a price fall and a cost rise, and prefer off-take contracts that fix the price or tie it to costs.

5.0%
inflation in August 2026, up from a 3.2% low in March; costs and prices move with it
-9.5%
the cedi against the US dollar, January to September 2026, which raises input costs and the fruit price alike

🌴 The six cost leaks, and the fix for each 🌴

Every leak below is a cost a Ghanaian operator carries and a competitor does not. Fixing them is the difference between a business that survives on subsidy and one that stands on its own.

Table 8: The six cost leaks in a Ghanaian oil palm business, and the fix for each
Where the money leaksWhat it costsThe fixThe prize
Low oil extractionartisanal mills leave nearly half the oil behind (about 11% out, against about 20% at an industrial mill)a better press or an upgraded millnearly double the oil from the same fruit
Late millingfree fatty acid rises above the 5 percent limit refiners accept, so the oil loses the industrial marketcollect and mill within 24 hours; site mills near the fruitoil that meets the refiners' specification
Transporthauling bunches to a distant mill can take about 20% of the fresh-fruit-bunch pricesite or share a mill near the fruit; aggregate loadskeep the fifth that transport eats
Bought fertilisera cash cost every season, and world fertiliser prices are forecast to rise about 31 percent in 202623recycle empty fruit bunches and mill waste to the fieldcheaper nutrients, a closed loop
Sub-scale millingabout US$359 a tonne of oil in 2011, against about US$180 if the same fruit yielded twice the oilraise oil recovery, for example by sharing a better-equipped millroughly halve the unit cost
Costly financehigh interest through the years before the palm pays, although average bank lending rates fell to about 15.9 percent in August 2026 from 24.2 percent a year earlier25GIRSAL guarantees and the policy moratoriuma lower cost of capital

Sources: MASDAR (2011); Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation (2019); Rhebergen et al. (2020); free-fatty-acid evidence from Tan et al. (2023); GIRSAL (2026).62132627

🌴 The biggest lever by far is oil extraction 🌴

How much oil, and revenue, one tonne of fresh fruit bunches yields at different extraction rates
Figure 18 How much oil, and revenue, one tonne of fresh fruit bunches yields at different extraction rates
What this shows

Lifting extraction from an artisanal 11 percent to an industrial 20 percent nearly doubles the oil, and the revenue, from the very same fresh fruit bunches. It is the single biggest cost-cutting lever in the crop.

A small-scale mini palm oil mill with a mechanical press
Chase extraction first
-GH¢530
lost on every tonne of fruit by an artisanal mill at 11% extraction, at September 2026 prices
21.6%
the extraction GOPDC recorded in 2016, against an artisanal 11

Of all those leaks, one dwarfs the rest. Extraction rate is the difference between only about 7 to 12 percent at an artisanal mill (an artisanal average of 11.7 percent) and about 17 to 22 percent at an industrial one, where estates averaged 17.4 percent and the industry best was 21.3 percent6; GOPDC recorded 21.6 percent in 201628.

From the very same tonne of fresh fruit bunches, the industrial mill pulls out nearly twice the oil, and nearly twice the revenue. For a mill, few other levers come close to that.

The September 2026 prices make the point in cedis. At the Authority’s minimum fruit price and world-price oil, an artisanal mill at 11 percent extraction loses about GH¢530 on every tonne of fruit, an improved mini-mill at 16 percent clears about GH¢315 (about GH¢170 after paying for the mill), and a mill at 18 percent about GH¢570, on the Oil Palm Cost and Returns Model v2. The minimum price is set on an 18 percent extraction rate16, so a mill needs about 13.5 to 15 percent just to break even. Artisanal processors survive today by selling red oil above the world price in local markets or by paying growers below the minimum; a 2024 survey in the Eastern Region recorded about GH¢737 a tonne paid for fruit1.

📡 Market signal: extraction before expansion

For anyone with capital, the message is blunt: chase extraction before more land or more fruit. Upgrading milling is the highest-return move in the whole crop: it uses fruit that already exists, and it turns Ghana's biggest weakness, its artisanal-milling base, into the biggest single prize.

The stainless tanks and pipework of an industrial palm oil mill and refinery
Industrial extraction
Nearly twice the oil from the same fruit: an industrial mill clears about 20 percent.

🌴 Model it yourself 🌴

Enter the capital you have to see which business is in reach, then model a mill to watch extraction turn a loss into a margin from the very same fruit. The mill defaults are the September 2026 fruit price and the August 2026 world oil price.

Tool 1

What can this capital start?

Enter the money you have to put in. The tiers your budget can reach light up, with the return each one is costed or projected to make.

Service & aggregationLittle fixed capital

Certified seedling nursery, fresh fruit bunch aggregation, kernel oil, disease surveillance or traceability. Knowledge and logistics work that needs little in fixed assets.

  • Lowest capital, fastest start
  • Sells into the milling and quality gap
  • Paid to improve other businesses' economics
In range
Smallholder growerFrom about US$1,100 a hectare

Plant and grow fresh fruit bunches on a few hectares. One hectare costs about GH¢12,680 to establish with hired labour (GH¢4,380 with family labour), then about GH¢7,140 a year in years 1 and 2 and GH¢9,500 in year 3, before the margin turns positive after the immature valley of Pillar 4.

  • Mature-year margin at 12 t/ha: GH¢5,760 hired, GH¢11,360 family labour
  • Break-even 8.4 t/ha hired, 5.3 t family; Ghana's average about 8 t
  • Table 7, September 2026 prices
In range
Mini-millAbout US$121,000 for a 2 t/h mill

Buy bunches and press out oil at small scale. A Nigerian study modelled a cluster mill handling about 2,000 tonnes of bunches a year: with a 100 percent loan, about 26% on biogas power or about 40% on diesel, on Nigerian prices and wages.

  • Modelled IRR about 26% to 40%, payback 3.6 to 2.3 years
  • Anyaoha and Zhang (2022), a Nigerian model5
  • Lift extraction to win on price and freshness
Above this budget
Medium 10 t/h millAbout US$3.6 million

Industrial milling at scale. A proposed 10-tonne-an-hour mill for the Golden Star plantations was projected in a 2019 feasibility study at about US$3.6m capital, a 26% IRR and a 3.7-year payback, on crude palm oil at US$740 a tonne and fruit at about US$102.

  • Projected IRR about 26%, payback about 3.7 years
  • Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation (2019), feasibility projection2
  • Only pays with secured, close feedstock
Above this budget

The tier guides are indicative: one hectare costs about GH¢12,680 to establish with hired labour (Table 7, about US$1,100); a 2-tonne-an-hour diesel mill cost about US$120,900 in a Nigerian study5; and a 10-tonne-an-hour mill was projected at about US$3.6 million2.

Tool 2

Model a mill: extraction before expansion

Slide the levers. Watch what raising the oil extraction rate does to your oil, your unit cost and your margin, from the very same fruit.

660 t
Crude palm oil a year
US$750,344
Gross revenue, oil plus kernels
US$1,560
Cost to make a tonne of oil
-US$279,150
Gross margin a year (-GH¢532 a tonne of fruit)
At an artisanal extraction rate the fruit cost is spread over little oil, so the mill loses about GH¢532 on every tonne of fruit at these prices, and needs about 15 percent extraction to break even. Artisanal processors survive by selling red oil above the world price in local markets or by paying growers below the minimum.

Fruit at the September 2026 minimum of GH¢1,714.40 a tonne, about US$150 at GH¢11.434; artisanal processing at GH¢246.70 a tonne of fruit (about US$21.6) and kernels sold as nuts for about GH¢25 a tonne of fruit1; crude palm oil US$1,117 and palm kernel oil US$2,264 a tonne, August 2026 averages3; kernel oil at about 22 kg a tonne of fruit (2.2 percent, within the 20 to 30 kg of Pillar 6), before the cost of cracking and crushing. Excludes the cost of the mill itself. Follows the Mini-mill sheet of the Oil Palm Cost and Returns Model v2, where an artisanal mill at 11 percent loses about GH¢530 a tonne of fruit; the model’s improved-mill figures (about GH¢315 at 16 percent) also count a mechanised mill’s higher running cost and its kernel sales.

🌴 Financing the wait, and what moves the money most 🌴

Oil palm money is made over decades but spent up front, so finance is central to the business. For the first time, dedicated long-term money has been announced. The 2026 to 2032 policy carries a US$500 million Oil Palm Development Finance Window covering up to 70 percent of project cost with a five-year moratorium on principal and interest29.

In August 2026 the World Bank financing agreement was still being finalised for Parliament, after which Development Bank Ghana is to lend through 21 participating institutions30, and GIRSAL guarantees up to 70 percent of a loan’s credit risk31; by mid-2026 it had guaranteed about GH¢1.85 billion of agribusiness loans for 6,695 businesses through 40 lenders27. Cheaper, more patient capital does two things at once: it bridges the immature valley for the grower, and it lowers the cost of the mill for the processor. A business plan that ignores these tools is leaving return on the table2927.

Some numbers matter far more than others. A grower's margin swings most, and by almost the same amount, on yield and the fresh-fruit-bunch price, which together set revenue, and much less on the cost lines; extraction matters to the mill and reaches the grower only through the price a mill can pay. On the Cost and Returns Model, a 20 percent move in the fruit price shifts the mature margin by about GH¢4,100 a hectare either way, yield by about GH¢3,800, the fertiliser price by about GH¢1,600 and the labour day rate by about GH¢1,400. That ranking tells a practitioner where to spend attention: protect the yield, secure a good mill, and worry about the rest second.

What a 20 percent move in each factor does to a grower's mature-year margin
Figure 19 What a 20 percent move in each factor does to a grower's mature-year margin
What this shows

The sensitivity ranks which levers matter most; the magnitudes follow the Cost and Returns Model's mature-year budget (12 tonnes a hectare, hired labour, September 2026 prices).

US$500m
the announced Oil Palm Development Finance Window, up to 70 percent of project cost; not yet lending in August 2026
GH¢1.85bn
of agribusiness loans guaranteed by GIRSAL by mid-2026, for 6,695 businesses
🌴 The Opening: cost and returns 🌴
01

Upgrade or share a mill for extraction. The highest-return move in the crop is lifting oil recovery from an artisanal 11 percent toward 20, on fruit that already exists. Secure the fresh-fruit-bunch supply and an offtake before you spend on the plant.

02

Aggregate and secure supply. The mistake is building capacity against the national deficit without a close, secured, good-quality fruit supply. The opening is the aggregation and outgrower model that keeps a mill full, which is a business in its own right.

03

Take the kernel value as well as the oil. Palm kernel oil averaged about US$2,264 a tonne in August 2026, about twice the crude palm oil price3, yet small processors in Assin earned only about GH¢5 a batch from the kernel8. A single-product operator leaves that money on the table.

04

Sell the cost-cutting as a service. Mill assessment, quality testing, cost analysis and aggregation are knowledge work that needs little capital and is paid to improve everyone else's economics. It is the cheapest route in, and the one the numbers point to.

🌴 The risks that sit inside the numbers 🌴

An idle small palm oil mill in Ghana with silent machinery and no fresh fruit bunches to process, capacity built ahead of secured supply, documentary photograph

Building capacity against a headline gap

HIGH
What it is

The tempting mistake is to read the national deficit, build a mill or refinery, and then find there is not enough fresh fruit bunch nearby, or not of good enough quality, to fill it. Capacity without secured, close, good feedstock runs half-empty and loses money.

Evidence

The Golden Star plantations, which have no mill of their own, haul all their fruit more than 80 kilometres to the Benso mill, so transport takes almost a fifth of the farm-gate price; their proposed mill also planned to buy in outside bunches to reach its throughput2.

Who it hits

Mill and refinery investors who size to the deficit rather than to a secured fruit supply.

How to manage it

Lock the fresh-fruit-bunch supply and an offtake to a quality specification before spending on capacity, and site the mill inside the fruit supply. The opening is the aggregation and outgrower model that secures supply.

A Ghanaian palm oil trader counting a thin margin of cash beside drums of crude palm oil in a volatile market, documentary photograph

Thin margins in a volatile market

MEDIUM-HIGH
What it is

Oil palm returns are real but thin, and they sit on top of a monthly fresh-fruit-bunch price, a world crude-palm-oil price and a moving exchange rate. A low-extraction, single-product operator with no cost buffer can be tipped into loss by any one of them.

Evidence

The fresh-fruit-bunch price is reset monthly by the Authority; crude palm oil tracks the world benchmark; and the cedi lost about 9.5 percent against the dollar between January and September 20262143.

Who it hits

Undercapitalised, low-efficiency operators selling one product on price.

How to manage it

Cut the controllable costs first (extraction, logistics), take the kernel value as well as the oil, and use the minimum-price floor and forward offtake to steady the top line.

🌴 Key takeaways 🌴
01

There are three oil palm businesses. Growing, mini-milling and medium-milling need very different capital, and the mill models project about 26 percent, while the grower's margin is thinner and slower.

02

On the 2011 Master Plan's figures, Ghanaian estates made palm oil dear, at over US$600 a tonne against US$300 to 350 in Asia, while small mills were close to the Asian cost; low extraction and high estate costs help imports win on price.

03

The cost gap is fixable. Six leaks, low extraction, late milling, transport, bought fertiliser, sub-scale and costly finance, can each be cut, and together they make up most of the competitiveness gap.

04

Extraction is the biggest lever by far: lifting it from 11 to 20 percent nearly doubles the oil and the revenue from the same fruit. Chase extraction before expansion.

05

Cheaper finance is on the way. The US$500 million window can lend once its World Bank agreement is approved, and GIRSAL guarantees are already in use. Both change the return, so build the cost of capital into the plan.

Where this connects. The yield that drives the grower's revenue is set in Pillars 1 and 4; the prices that drive it are in Pillar 2; the extraction and quality that decide the mill's margin are risks in Pillar 3; and how value is shared along the chain, and where it is captured, is the value-chain story of Pillar 6.

Written for each reader

🌴 Practitioner intelligence 🌴

Hover any card to pause and lift it.

For students

If you are entering with little money, the numbers point to a service business. The highest-return move in the crop is lifting extraction and cutting the cost leaks, and that is knowledge work: mill assessment, quality testing, cost analysis, aggregation. Learn to read a simple cost-and-returns model and you can advise a mill or a cooperative on the cost cuts in Table 8. The mistake first-timers make is buying the asset before they understand its economics; understand the economics and you can be paid to improve everyone else's.

For entrepreneurs

First move: pick the cheapest big cut and sell it. The clearest is extraction, upgrade or share a mill that lifts oil recovery from an artisanal 11 percent toward 20, on fruit that already exists. Secure the fresh-fruit-bunch supply and an offtake before you spend on the plant. The trap is building capacity against the national deficit without a close, secured, good-quality fruit supply, which leaves the mill half-empty. Use GIRSAL and the policy window to lower the capital cost.

For investors

The thesis: the return in Ghanaian oil palm comes from cutting a high cost base, more than from building to the headline deficit. Diligence asks: what oil extraction rate does the plan achieve and how; is the fresh-fruit-bunch supply secured, close and to quality, or assumed; and is the model still positive at a conservative crude-palm-oil price and a weaker cedi. Underwrite feedstock and extraction ahead of installed tonnes. The GSOPP feasibility study projected about a 26 percent internal rate of return and a 3.7-year payback, with the plantations’ own fruit as feedstock2; the dominant risk is an under-fed mill.

For ecosystem actors

The lever: subsidise or de-risk the cost cuts ahead of raw expansion. Finance and technical support aimed at raising extraction and building shared, well-sited mills does more for competitiveness than money for new hectares. The measurable outcome is the national average oil extraction rate and the unit cost of local crude palm oil against the import price. The failure to avoid is funding capacity or planting while the milling and logistics inefficiencies that make Ghanaian oil dear are left in place. Public money should buy competitiveness as well as volume.

Footnotes
  1. Akakpo, I., & Kumi-Kyere, R. (2026). The performance of the small-scale oil palm enterprises in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana. Journal of Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Animal Science, 3(1), 9-17. https://doi.org/10.69739/jaaas.v3i1.1478↑
  2. Golden Star Oil Palm Plantation. (2019). GSOPP mill feasibility study. Golden Star Resources. http://s1.q4cdn.com/789791377/files/doc_downloads/SDG/case-studies/2019/01/GSOPP-Mill-Feasibility-Study_2019_Compress.pdf↑
  3. World Bank. (2026b, September 2). World Bank commodities price data (The Pink Sheet), September 2026. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/74e8be41ceb20fa0da750cda2f6b9e4e-0050012026/related/CMO-Pink-Sheet-September-2026.pdf↑
  4. Tree Crops Development Authority. (2026a, September 1). TCDA announces minimum producer price of fresh fruit bunches of oil palm and raw rubber cup-lumps (September 2026) [Price notice]. https://tcda.gov.gh/tcda-announces-minimum-producer-price-of-fresh-fruit-bunches-of-oil-palm-and-raw-rubber-cup-lumps-september-2026/↑
  5. Anyaoha, K. E., & Zhang, L. (2022). Transition from fossil-fuel to renewable-energy-based smallholder bioeconomy: Techno-economic analyses of two oil palm production systems. Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, 10, Article 100270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceja.2022.100270↑
  6. MASDAR. (2011). Masterplan study on the oil palm industry in Ghana: Final report (Rev. ed.). Ministry of Food and Agriculture. https://mofa.gov.gh/site/images/pdf/GHANA'S%20OIL%20PALM%20MASTER%20PLAN.pdf↑
  7. IOI's upstream earnings to ride on strong CPO prices. (2025, July 31). The Star. https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2025/07/31/ioi039s-upstream-earnings-to-ride-on-strong-cpo-prices↑
  8. Djokoto, J. G., & Zigah, D. E. (2021). Gross margin of smallholder palm fruit processors with non-allocable inputs in Assin North and South districts in Ghana. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 5, Article 100177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2021.100177↑
  9. Nuertey, B. N. (1999). Studies on oil palm based cropping systems in Ghana [Doctoral dissertation, University of Ghana]. UGSpace. https://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/server/api/core/bitstreams/6598aa61-fcfa-4912-b670-2456468f6190/content↑
  10. Ruml, A., Chrisendo, D., Iddrisu, A. M., Karakara, A. A., Nuryartono, N., Osabuohien, E., & Lay, J. (2022). Smallholders in agro-industrial production: Lessons for rural development from a comparative analysis of Ghana's and Indonesia's oil palm sectors. Land Use Policy, 119, Article 106196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106196↑
  11. Fairtrade International. (2025). Fairtrade living income reference prices for cocoa from Ghana & Côte d'Ivoire: Explanatory note. https://www.fairtrade.net/content/dam/fairtrade/global/why-we-do-it/living-income/living-income-reference-prices/Fairtrade-Living-Income-Reference-Prices-Cocoa-Ghana-Cote-dIvoire-2025-explanatory-note.pdf↑
  12. Ankrah, E. (2025, November 9). Gov't increases minimum wage by 9% effective January 1. MyJoyOnline. https://www.myjoyonline.com/govt-increases-minimum-wage-by-9-effective-january-1/↑
  13. Rhebergen, T., Zingore, S., Giller, K. E., Frimpong, C. A., Acheampong, K., Ohipeni, F. T., Panyin, E. K., Zutah, V., & Fairhurst, T. (2020). Closing yield gaps in oil palm production systems in Ghana through best management practices. European Journal of Agronomy, 115, Article 126011. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2020.126011↑
  14. Gold Fields Foundation sets up Eco Palms GH to promote sustainable livelihood. (2025, July 3). The Business & Financial Times. https://thebftonline.com/article/gold-fields-foundation-sets-up-eco-palms-gh-to-promote-sustainable-livelihood↑
  15. AfricaFertilizer Watch. (2025, October 9). West Africa [September 2025] [Market report]. https://wp.africafertilizerwatch.org/2025/10/west-africa_09-2025/↑
  16. Riemersma, M., & Leegwater, M. (2025). Palm oil barometer 2025: Procurement for prosperity. Solidaridad. https://www.solidaridadnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/FINAL-Palm-Oil-Barometer_Full_july25_WEB.pdf↑
  17. Assocle, S. (2026, March 24). Ghana drops fertilizer subsidies for free distribution amid price spike. Ecofin Agency. https://www.ecofinagency.com/news-agriculture/2403-54025-ghana-drops-fertilizer-subsidies-for-free-distribution-amid-price-spike↑
  18. Lartey, N. L. (2025, December 4). From 23% to 6%: Ghana's 2025 inflation slowdown, the context and economic signals. Citi Newsroom. https://www.citinewsroom.com/2025/12/from-23-to-6-ghanas-2025-inflation-slowdown-the-context-and-economic-signals/↑
  19. Ntow, F. (2026, April 1). Ghana's inflation falls to 3.2 per cent in March 2026. Ghana News Agency. https://gna.org.gh/2026/04/ghanas-inflation-falls-to-3-2-per-cent-in-march-2026/↑
  20. Nixon, C. (2026a, September 2). Inflation rises to 5.0% in August 2026. MyJoyOnline. https://www.myjoyonline.com/ghanas-inflation-rises-to-5-0-in-august-2026/↑
  21. Nixon, C. (2026b, September 23). Cedi depreciates by 9.5% in nine months of 2026: BoG. MyJoyOnline. https://www.myjoyonline.com/cedi-depreciates-by-9-5-in-nine-months-of-2026-bog/↑
  22. Karikari, N. (2026, May 5). World Bank projects sharp rise in fertiliser prices for 2026, warns of food inflation risks. GBC Ghana Online. https://www.gbcghanaonline.com/news/business/world-bank-fertiliser/2026/↑
  23. World Bank. (2026a, April). Commodity markets outlook, April 2026. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/f3138644a1e8e2bb631399ae11d6c408-0050012026/original/CMO-April-2026.pdf↑
  24. Tree Crops Development Authority. (2026d, April 1). Price of fresh fruit bunches of oil palm and raw rubber cup-lumps as fixed and announced by TCDA for April 2026 [Price notice]. https://tcda.gov.gh/price-of-fresh-fruit-bunches-of-oil-palm-and-raw-rubber-cup-lumps-as-fixed-and-announced-by-tcda-for-april-2026/↑
  25. Bank of Ghana. (2026, September 24). Monetary Policy Committee press release [Press release]. https://www.bog.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/MPC-Press-Release-September-2026.pdf↑
  26. Tan, B. A., Nair, A., Zakaria, M. I. S., Low, J. Y. S., Kua, S. F., Koo, K. L., Wong, Y. C., Neoh, B. K., Lim, C. M., & Appleton, D. R. (2023). Free fatty acid formation points in palm oil processing and the impact on oil quality. Agriculture, 13(5), Article 957. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13050957↑
  27. GIRSAL. (2026, July 23). GIRSAL holds 2026 annual general meeting (AGM). https://www.girsal.com/2026/07/23/girsal-holds-2026-annual-general-meeting-agm/↑
  28. PT TUV Rheinland Indonesia. (2017). Annual surveillance audit report: Ghana Oil Palm Development Company Ltd, GOPDC palm oil mill (Report No. ASA2_15027). Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. https://rspo.org/wp-content/uploads/GOPDC_RSPO_Surveillance_Audit_Report_ASA2.pdf↑
  29. Ministry of Finance. (2025, November 13). The budget statement and economic policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2026 financial year. Government of Ghana. https://mofep.gov.gh/sites/default/files/budget-statements/2026-Budget-Statement-and-Economic-Policy.pdf↑
  30. Agyeman, N. K. (2026, August 17). DBG initiates financial support to oil palm sector. Graphic Online. https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/ghana-news-dbg-initiates-financial-support-to-oil-palm-sector.html↑
  31. Addison, E. (2024, September 17). GIRSAL's 5th anniversary launch and rubber value chain conference [Speech]. Bank of Ghana. https://www.bog.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Governors-Remarks-GIRSALs-5th-Anniversary-Launch-and-Rubber-Value-Chain-Conference-17.09.24.pdf↑
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