The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is hopeful the completion of the National Exports Development Strategy will boost the production and export of non-traditional goods.
According to the authority, Ghana has struggled to meet expected targets for non-traditional exports for the past three years.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show as part of the Citi Business Festival, the Director of Agric at the GEPA, Mr. Erasmus Ashun disclosed that figures for non-traditional exports have not seen significant improvement in recent times.
“In 2017, we did about 2.6 billion dollars. We realize that the performance has plateaued over the past three, four years and in the wisdom of the Chief Executive, there is a need to have an incremental growth and that is why we are currently preparing a National Exports Development Strategy,” he said.
Citing cashew production as an example, Mr. Ashun stated that a study done by the International Center for Trade in 2016 showed that Ghana was producing cashew far below the country’s potential.
“When you take cashew, our export potential then was 464.3 million dollars at the time. We couldn’t do the 260 million dollars that we did in 2017. The untapped potential then was 304 million dollars then”.
Mr. Ashun noted that the same situation runs through all the other non-traditional exports such as banana, pineapple, mangoes, yam and medicinal plants”.
He maintained that not only is Ghana losing revenue but the opportunity to create jobs is also being denied.
