Coronavirus: GCX developing methods to avert trade reduction on platform

The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX), says new methods are being developed to avert trade reduction which has affected pricing on its operations due the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the Chief Executive of the GCX, Dr. Alfa Kadri, the move is expected to reassure farmers to keep trading on the platform.

Speaking in an interview with Citi Business News, Dr Kadri said; “We have seen that the farmers or the producers who normally bring the commodities are not doing so because of their own food insecurity. We have seen a substantial drop in membership who are signing on to work with the Exchange to be buyers or sellers of commodities.”

He added that the drop has negatively affected the Exchange and impacted on its pricing regime, as farmers who used to supply it with commodities have halted due to uncertainties in the market amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Kadri is however optimistic the new methods, will assist in addressing the challenges of all the stakeholders in the supply value chain.

Meanhile, an economist and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Priscilla Twumasi-Baffour earlier advised government to insulate the Ghanaian economy from its dependence on commodity exports to mitigate price volatility shortfalls on the global trade market.

According to her, an over-reliance on commodity exports can destructively affect economic growth and well-being in the short and medium terms which increases the vulnerability of commodity-dependent countries to negative commodity price shocks.

“I think that the government needs to think critically of ways of trying to insulate the economy from commodity dependence. Generally, commodity price falls are not surprising. But economies are basically demand-driven, so once the demand is dampened, there is a rippling effect, then a multiplier effect,” she earlier explained.