Gold may be carrying Ghana’s wider export economy, but when it comes to food trade, cocoa is doing much of the work.
Ghana exported GH¢46.1 billion in food products in 2024, compared with GH¢38.9 billion in food imports, giving the country a food trade surplus of about GH¢7.2 billion, according to Ghana Statistical Service data. On the surface, that is a sizeable food-export story. But a closer look reveals much of that value traces back to one familiar crop that has been at the heart of Ghana’s trade for generations; cocoa.
Cocoa beans brought in GH¢14.95 billion, while cocoa paste contributed GH¢6.60 billion and cocoa butter another GH¢3.18 billion. Together, the three categories accounted for about 53.6% of Ghana’s food exports in 2024, making cocoa by far the most important source of value within the country’s food export basket.
The other side of the trade tells a different story. Ghana’s GH¢38.9 billion food import bill was spread across a much wider range of products, including grains, cereals, meat, sugar, animal and vegetable fats and oils, and fish. Those categories together accounted for 53.6% of food imports.
That contrast gives the food trade a striking shape. Ghana earns a large share of its food-export revenue from cocoa, while its food purchases from the rest of the world are spread across many of the products that make up the country’s wider food basket.
The surplus was also not created because Ghana suddenly stopped importing food. Between 2023 and 2024, food exports increased by GH¢12.6 billion, while food imports rose by GH¢12.2 billion. Both sides of the trade expanded, with exports growing slightly faster.
For a country that has spent years trying to strengthen its export base, the distinction is worth noting. The value of food leaving Ghana is substantial, but the products generating that value are not evenly distributed.
Cocoa’s position within food exports becomes even more striking when placed against Ghana’s wider export story. Gold accounted for 63.1% of total merchandise exports in 2025, up sharply from 38.5% in 2004, while cocoa beans and products accounted for 14% of total exports in 2025, down from 29.3% in 2004.
Yet the fall in cocoa’s share does not mean the crop has stopped earning money. Cocoa bean exports reached a record US$4.2 billion in 2025. Its share has fallen largely because gold has grown much faster, taking an increasingly large piece of Ghana’s export earnings.
The result is a trade economy where two commodities carry much of the weight, but in different places. Gold leads Ghana’s overall export basket, while cocoa accounts for a large share of the value generated from food exports.
The longer history also shows that this is not entirely new. Under the broader GSS SITC classification, Ghana recorded food trade surpluses through much of 2004–2016, before the balance turned negative in 2017. The historical series and the newer food-product reports use different classifications, so they should not be treated as one continuous annual series.
Still, the latest numbers bring the picture into focus. Ghana recorded a GH¢7.2 billion food trade surplus in 2024, but more than half of its food export value came from cocoa products, while its imports were spread across a much wider range of foods.
For the farmer growing cocoa in Ghana’s countryside, the figures ultimately connect back to a crop that continues to earn billions of cedis for the country. For the consumer, however, the same trade data show Ghana continuing to bring in a broad range of food products from abroad.
That leaves Ghana’s food trade with a clear and somewhat uneven structure where the country earns much of its food-export revenue from cocoa, while continuing to import a wide range of other food products.
