Ghana’s Non-Traditional Exports (NTEs) earnings increased from $2.847 billion in 2020 to $3.33 billion in 2021, representing an increase of 17% during the period under review.

This was reported at the 2021 NTE statistics launch by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority in Accra.

Over the past five years (2017 to 2021), the country’s NTEs grew at an annual average rate of 7.07%, contributing 22.62% to the total national merchandise exports of Ghana in 2021.

According to the report, the top 10 leading products which comprise cocoa paste, cocoa butter, cashew nuts, articles of plastics, canned tuna, iron/steel, natural rubber sheets, refined palm olein, cocoa powder, and aluminum plates contributed about $2.096 billion, representing 62.96% of the total NTE earnings for 2021.

Processed and semi-processed sector

The report revealed the processed and semi-processed sector earnings amounted to $2.809 billion, depicting an increase of 17.88 compared to 2.382 billion earned in 2020. The increase was mainly due to the high performance of cocoa butter, natural rubber sheets, cocoa powder, refined palm olein, and aluminum plates, sheets and coils.

Agricultural sub-sector Export

Total earnings from the agricultural sub-sector in 2021 amounted to $476.01 million compared to $433.02 million earned in 2020.

This showed an increase of 9.93%.

The subsector contributed 14.29% to the total NTE earnings in the year under review.

In her opening remarks, the CEO of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare who shared highlights of the report indicated that their organisation came to terms with using technology primarily for several aspects of its promotional efforts where it hitherto heavily relied on in-person tactics.

“Business summits, Trade shows, Global seminars and Exhibitions were all running either virtually or in hybrid mode, utilizing all available resources to promote exports and strengthening exporters’ capacities”.

She reiterated that “there’s a lot we can do to turn things around – if we set our minds to being export-oriented and aligning our operations to the pillars of the National Export Development Strategy”.

In 2021, Ghana exported to 152 countries.

The EU and UK markets continue to top export destinations, contributing 35.96% to total market value.