Export Authority calls for state support to help rake in US$3.3bn

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has called for an increase in funds from the government to help improve the export sector as well as key export trade facilitating institutions.

The GEPA, which is the National Export Trade Support Institution of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), is responsible for the facilitation, development and promotion of Ghanaian exports.

The call was in response to the declining earnings from the country’s Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) which comprise mainly agriculture, processed and semi-processed products and handicrafts for 2012.

The country’s revenue from NTEs in 2012 recorded a decline of 2.43 per cent to US$2.364 billion but that acting Chief Executive Officer of the GEPA, Mr Quarcoo, is optimistic that the GEPA can achieve its 2013 set target of US$3.3 billion with increased funding from the government.  

The funding is to enable the GEPA assist the private sector to drive the anticipated increases in Non-Traditional Exports (NTE) revenue for 2013 and beyond.

He was speaking at the 74th National Exporters’ Forum and the launch of 2012 NTE statistics in Accra. The forum, since its inception in 1987, has served as a suitable platform for interaction between exporters and facilitating institutions to identify the constraints besetting the export sector and finding solutions thereto.

He reiterated that the export sector continued to be driven by value-added products such as cocoa and timber.

“However, the full potential of these value-added products have not been realised yet and efforts must be made to achieve higher levels of value- addition through enhanced investments in agro-processing and other productive sectors,” he said.

The GEPA, he said, would focus largely on trade fairs and trade missions as part of its aggressive export promotion means to help boost the export sector.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, who launched the 2012 NTE statistics, said the figures did not look too good, hence there was the need to find out what went wrong and how best the export regime could be improved.

He said although government was committed to increasing the volume of exports largely in 2013, there was great responsibility on exporters to ensure that they complied with relevant standards and principles governing exports.

On value addition to products, Mr Iddrisu said government was ready to offer a 2-year tax holiday to companies who would add value to what was produced locally before export.

In 2012, exports of non- traditional products amounted to US$2.364 billion, representing a decrease of 2.43 per cent over 2011’s earnings of US$2.423 billion.

The decline, according to Mr Quarcoo, resulted from a drop in the average price levels of some key products such as cashew nuts (16 percent), cocoa paste (11 percent) and canned tuna (33 percent).

Also, the lifting of the ban on exports of cocoa and its derivatives in La Cote d’Ivoire in 2012 limited market opportunities within the year for some key cocoa companies in Ghana, hence the decline.

Meanwhile, the 10 leading NTE products for 2012 were cocoa paste, cocoa butter, canned tuna, articles of plastics, cashew nuts and natural rubber sheets.

The rest were veneers, raw/lint cotton, lubricating oil and aluminum plates/sheets/coils.

A breakdown of sub-sector performance showed that receipts from agricultural products were US$276.38 million in 2012 as against, US$296.97 million in 2011.

Revenues from handicrafts grew its 2011 performance from US$3.57 million in 2011 to US$4.99 million during the period under review, while processed/semi processed exports yielded US$2083.9 million in 2012, lower than the US$2122.79 million recorded in 2011.

By Jessica Acheampong/Graphic Business/Ghana