Ghana’s Non-Traditional Exports for 2016, dropped by 2.3%.
The figure dropped from 2.5 billion dollars in 2015 to 2.4 billion dollars between 2015 and 2016.
Despite the drop within the twelve months period, the Non-Traditional exports contributed about 23 percent to total exports in 2016.
The 2016 contribution represented an increase compared to the previous contributions recorded in the past four years.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Eric Amoako Twum attributed the decline in performance to the decline in export of some processed cocoa products.
According to Mr. Amoako, the exports for such processed cocoa products went down by 16% within the one year period.
The figure dropped from $643.3 million to $542 million between 2015 and 2016.
“So we have agricultural produce, manufactured craft, and home décor as well as services. Exports of non-traditional exports from January to December 2016 amounted to US 2.46 dollars. This is a decrease of 2.3% as compared to the previous year.”
“The low performance can be largely due to the fact that there was a decline in cocoa products over the period by 16% which essentially made us not do well as we were basically going to.” he added.
Meanwhile among sub-categories of the non traditional exports, agric and semi-processed goods recorded a negative growth of 6.49% and 1.60 % respectively.
Exports of handicrafts however recorded a growth of 22.25% between 2015 and 2016.
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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana.