Gov’t targets US$5billion annually

…in non-traditional exports

Government says it is targetting an annual revenue inflow of US$5billion from the export of non-traditional products within the next five years, under the Ghana National Strategy for the Non-Traditional Export Sector.

Ten non-traditional products have been prioritised under the new national export strategy, which spans 2013-2017, to achieve the projectedrevenue.

They include fresh, frozen and processed fish; Vegetable oils and seeds -- raw and processed Shea nuts, cashew nuts, oil palm, groundnuts, soya, sunflower; root crops; grains and legumes; natural plant product preparations; natural rubber and rubber products; processed cocoa products; and products of creative arts industries.

Ghana’s non-traditional exports earnings fell 2.43 percent to US$2.364billion in 2012 compared with US$2.423billion in 2011.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry, under the new export strategy, projects an annual export growth of 25 percent for manufactured products; 30 percent for non-traditional agricultural products; 20 percent for creative arts industries; and 35 percent for export earnings of services for the next five years.

The country’s traditional export sector, as at the end of last year, has primarily been dominated by cocoa beans, gold and timber since the colonial era, which according to the trade ministry “makes the economy still vulnerable”.

The European Union (EU) remains the largest export market for the country’s non-traditional export products. About 34 percent of the country’s NTEs end up in the EU market, 10 percent in other developed countries, and about 32 percent for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market.

About 87.4 % of overall non-traditional export (NTE) revenue for 2012 -- US$2.423billion, was generated from export of manufactured products by a few medium-sized companies. Large numbers of small and micro enterprises account for less than 20% of revenues.

Ten products accounted for over 60 percent of revenues realised for non-traditional exports for 2012 – the majority of which are agro-processed. Over 230 other products account for less than 40 percent of NTE revenues.

The National Export Strategy, which is a complement to the Private Sector Development Strategy II, is targetted at providing export opportunities and driving private sector development. It was also developed to mitigate some of the pertinent problems in the sector.

High cost of production, deficiencies in infrastructural services to the sector, complicated, protracted and costly port and customs clearance procedures, and difficulty and cost of compliance with market access conditions are the main challenges bedevilling the NTE sector.