Ghana: Food exports (% of merchandise exports), 2025
Food products accounted for 18% of Ghana’s merchandise exports in the latest World Bank data for 2023. In 2025 cocoa beans and products alone made up 14% of total exports, while gold dominated at 63.1%.
Ghana’s merchandise exports remain concentrated in a small number of commodities. Food products form an important but secondary share of the total.
The most recent World Bank figure shows food exports at 18% of merchandise exports in 2023. No equivalent official percentage for 2025 has been published in the World Bank series.
2025 National Trade Data
Ghana Statistical Service data for 2025 show that gold accounted for 63.1% of total merchandise exports. Cocoa beans and cocoa products contributed 14.0%. Mineral fuels and oils made up 8.8%.
Cocoa is the dominant component of Ghana’s food export basket. In earlier years cocoa beans, paste and butter together have typically accounted for more than half of all food export value. The 14% share recorded for cocoa products in 2025 therefore provides a lower-bound indication of the food category’s weight in the latest full year.
Longer-Term Shift
Two decades ago cocoa beans and products represented 29.3% of Ghana’s exports. Gold’s share has risen from 38.5% in 2004 to 63.1% in 2025. The relative decline in cocoa’s percentage does not reflect a collapse in absolute earnings. Cocoa bean exports alone reached a record US$4.2 billion in 2025. Gold simply grew faster, expanding its weight in the overall basket.
Food exports as a whole generated a trade surplus in recent years. In 2024 Ghana recorded food exports of GH¢46.1 billion against food imports of GH¢38.9 billion. Cocoa products remained the largest single item within food exports.
Structure and Implications
The high share of gold leaves food, including cocoa, in a supporting role. A 14% contribution from cocoa products in 2025 is still material for foreign-exchange earnings and for rural incomes. Yet it is substantially lower than the levels seen when cocoa held a larger slice of total exports.
Diversification debates in Ghana often focus on moving beyond both gold and unprocessed cocoa. Value-added cocoa products have increased their weight within the cocoa category over the past two decades, but the overall food share remains well below the levels typical of specialised agricultural exporters.
Data Notes
The World Bank indicator measures food, live animals, beverages, tobacco, animal and vegetable oils, and oil seeds as a percentage of total merchandise exports. National statistics present cocoa products as a distinct line. The two approaches are consistent in direction but not identical in coverage.
Until a full 2025 figure aligned with the World Bank definition is released, the combination of the 18% reading for 2023 and the 14% cocoa share for 2025 offers the clearest available picture of food’s place in Ghana’s export structure.
