A new report released by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) on Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs), revealed that the country has recorded a drop in non-traditional commodity exports in 2020.

According to the report, Ghana has for the first time in five years, witnessed a decline in its Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) earnings, recording a total of $2,846,635,870 in NTEs at the end of December 2020, which was less than the figure for the previous year. The report indicated that the $2.846 billion earnings from January to December 2020, compared to the $2.899 billion earnings recorded in2019 represent a decline of 1.84 percent.

“Over the last five years (2016 to 2020), Ghana’s Non-Traditional Exports grew at an annual average rate of 2.55 percent and contributed 19.67 percent to the total national merchandise exports of Ghana in 2020.”
GEPA Report

GEPA, however, attributed the decline of $53,333,948 in 2020 to the impact of COVID-19 on global trade. The Authority moreover, blamed the decline in demand for traditional export products as a reason for the decline in the NTEs.

“The fall is due to a downward trend in the performance of the processed/semi-processed products sector, particularly, cocoa butter and canned tuna.

“Total export fell steeply, relative to a gentle fall in NTEs during the period under review. This is due to fall in demand in all categories of traditional export products with an average fall of 56.04 percent in volume exported and a corresponding average fall of 53.08 percent in earning of all categories of traditional exports.”
GEPA Report

Export earnings — Pineaples Packaged for Export

However, all the top 10 leading products of the Processed, Agricultural and Arts and Craft subsectors showed increase in performance with average growths of 24.11 percent, 21.28 percent, 13.49 percent and 472.81 percent respectively.

Cashew Nut in Top 10 Leading Products

Cashew nut was the only agriculture product that showed up in the top 10 leading products, with the rest being processed and semi processed products.

The top 10 leading products as revealed by the report are: Cocoa paste, Cocoa butter, Cashew nuts, Articles of plastics, Canned Tuna, and Iron/Steel Circles/ Rods Sheets/ Billets. The rest are Shea (Karite) Oil, Refined Palm Olein, Cocoa Powder, and Natural Rubber Sheets.

The report noted that the highest contributing subsector; Processed/Semi Processed products, accounted for about 83.71 percent of total NTEs. However, the subsector performance experienced a fall of 2.94 percent in 2020 compared to 2019 earnings.

Agricultural subsector also recorded a 0.65 percent rise in its performance from 2019, with a 15.21 percent contribution to total NTE’s in 2020. However, Industrial Art and Craft accounted for 1.08 percent of total NTEs, depicting an increase of 110.88 percent against the 2019 year’s earnings.

Non-Traditional Export Destinations

In terms of destination of NTEs, the export of goods into European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) markets, are the leading destinations. The EU and UK contributed to 34.35 percent of the total market by absorbing US$977.68 million value of NTEs.

This market value, nevertheless, reduced by 11.57 percent in 2020 relative to 2019 performance. This, the report explained, was due to depression of demand for cut pineapples, fresh bananas, and canned tuna, due to fall outs from disruptions in distribution chains.

Export into Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was US$ 783,838,565, a fall from US$836,511,513, representing a 6.30 percent fall from the previous year. The ECOWAS market destination represents 27.54 percent share of the total export market.