The government of Ghana has announced that it intends “to establish a Ghana International Trade Commission (GITC)” empowered to “take advantage of the remedies on piracy, anti-dumping and countervailing measures”. President John Mahama, speaking to Parliament, said that “globalisation and trade liberalisation had brought in their wake a number of unfair trading practices such as dumping of cheap products by foreign exporters”, and added that the GITC would help to prevent such practices. He stated that the overall aim of the GITC is “to boost [Ghana’s] domestic and international competitiveness”.

The President commented that the government “had committed itself to the establishment of a Commodity Exchange and associated Warehouse Receipt System… as part of efforts to create an orderly, transparent, and efficient marketing system for Ghana’s key agricultural commodities [and] to promote agricultural investment and enhance productivity”.

According to online reports, the Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture has said that the government is also planning to establish a programme to rejuvenate the poultry sector, as part of wider efforts to promote increased production of livestock products and reduce the country’s bill for imported goods.

An exporters’ guide to Ghana published by USDA sets the agricultural production and trade context within which the GITC will commence its work. Ghana’s agricultural sector is seen as “largely subsistence-based”, consisting of 70% crop production, with livestock, poultry and fisheries production accounting for 20%, and forestry less than 10%. Agriculture employs fully 60% of the population. In 2013, growth in the agriculture sector was higher than in 2012 (+3.4% compared to +1.3%), but still lagged behind other sectors (services +9.2%, industry +9.1%), with the contribution of agriculture to GDP continuing to decline (from 22.7% in 2012 to 21.3% in 2013).

In contrast, following strong economic growth, Ghana’s total food and agricultural imports were up 25% in 2013 compared to 2012 (from US$1.2billion to US$1.5 billion), consisting largely of “bulk/intermediate and consumer-ready commodities such as rice, wheat, sugar and poultry”. Leading suppliers include the EU (35%), followed by Asian countries and South Africa.

The USDA analysis notes that “demand for consumer-ready food products is expanding rapidly in Ghana”, due to the growing middle class, high rates of urbanisation and population growth. These trends have led to supermarket chains opening up, although these only account for 5% of retail sales, with traditional open-air markets accounting for 65%.

Given a lack of raw materials, poor infrastructure, high energy and financing costs, and government taxation policy, USDA reports only a “limited selection of products provided by the underdeveloped domestic agricultural and food processing sector”. As a consequence, demand for imports is growing strongly, with low import tariffs applied. According to USDA, the government “is positioning Ghana as the gateway to the larger West African market (over 260 million people)”.

USDA observes that Ghana operates a relatively free market, with a four-tariff band system (0%, 5%, 10% and 20%), and notes also the pending implementation of the EPA agreement, which will eliminate duties on 80% of imports from the EU over the next 15 years.