Figures by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) have shown that export earnings from the Agricultural subsector for 2016, dropped by 6.49%.
Export earnings for 2016 is estimated at 371 million dollars compared to an estimated 396 million dollars recorded in 2015.
Agric exports however contributed 15% to the total non-traditional export earnings in 2016.
Of the ten leading agricultural export produce for 2016, cashew nuts led with 196.7 million dollars worth of exports.
This translated into 53.02% contribution to total agricultural exports for 2016.
This was followed closely by banana exports which recorded 30.8 million dollars representing about 8 percent of total agric exports for 2016.
Medicinal plants & parts and Fresh or chilled tunas came in with the third and fourth highest agric exports for 2016. The two products recorded 26.5 and 26.3 million dollars respectively.
Their share of the sector’s exports was 7 percent each.
The fifth highest contributor to agricultural exports for 2016 was Shea nuts with 19.1 million dollars representing 5 percent of total agric exports.
This was followed by yams which recorded the sixth highest of 18.9 million dollars and representing 5 percent of agric exports.
The seventh and eighth highest agric exports for 2016 were pineapples and mangoes.
The two fruits recorded values of 13.7 and 11.5 million dollars respectively. Their shares were represented as 3.7 and 3 percent respectively.
Cuttle fish and squid came as the ninth highest agric export for 2016 with 4 million dollars representing 1.1 percent of total agric exports for the period.
The tenth highest agric export for 2016 is palm nuts and kernels which recorded 3.9 million dollars and constituted 1 percent of the total exports for the period.
Source: citifmonline.com
