01Key Takeaways
- Ghana exported $16.87 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 2.90% from $17.38 billion in 2022.
- Gold and other precious metals led every export category at 45.47% ($7.67 billion), well ahead of mineral fuels at 24.00% ($4.05 billion).
- Switzerland bought 18.25% of exports, worth $3.08 billion, Ghana's top single destination, reflecting its role as a global gold-trading hub.
- Cocoa exports totaled 11.25% ($1.90 billion) even as smuggling and illegal mining sharply cut into Ghana's cocoa harvest that same year.
024-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $16.8B | $14.8B | $17.4B | $16.9B |
03Top Export Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Switzerland | $3.1B | 18.2% |
| 2 | South Africa | $2.0B | 11.7% |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | $1.7B | 10.2% |
| 4 | China | $1.4B | 8.2% |
| 5 | India | $1.2B | 7.0% |
| 6 | Canada | $855.5M | 5.1% |
| 7 | United States | $787.8M | 4.7% |
| 8 | Netherlands | $664.1M | 3.9% |
| 9 | Italy | $621.4M | 3.7% |
| 10 | Brazil | $523.2M | 3.1% |
04Top Export Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural or Cultured Pearls, Precious or Semi-Precious Stones, Precious Metals, Metals Clad with Precious Metal, and Articles thereof; Imitation Jewellery; Coin | $7.7B | 45.5% |
| 2 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $4.0B | 24.0% |
| 3 | Cocoa and Cocoa Preparations | $1.9B | 11.2% |
| 4 | Ores, Slag and Ash | $395.3M | 2.3% |
| 5 | Edible Fruit and Nuts; Peel of Citrus Fruit or Melons | $387.3M | 2.3% |
| 6 | Iron and Steel | $289.1M | 1.7% |
| 7 | Animal or Vegetable Fats and Oils and their Cleavage Products; Prepared Edible Fats; Animal or Vegetable Waxes | $191.3M | 1.1% |
| 8 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $188.8M | 1.1% |
| 9 | Preparations of Meat, of Fish or of Crustaceans, Molluscs or other Aquatic Invertebrates | $143.3M | 0.8% |
| 10 | Aluminium and Articles thereof | $129.3M | 0.8% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Gold and Oil Dominate, but Cocoa Tells the More Complicated Story
Ghana exported $16.87 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 2.90% from $17.38 billion the year before. Natural and cultured pearls, precious stones, and precious metals, overwhelmingly gold, led every category by a wide margin, worth $7.67 billion, or 45.47% of the total. Ghana overtook South Africa in 2023 to become Africa's leading gold producer, with output reaching 114.5 tonnes, up 8.3% from 105.7 tonnes in 2022, according to the Ghana Chamber of Mines. Mineral fuels ranked second at 24.00% ($4.05 billion), tied to Ghana's offshore Jubilee oil field and its position as a modest but genuine crude oil producer.
Cocoa and cocoa preparations ranked third at 11.25% ($1.90 billion), a figure that would likely have been considerably higher in a normal year. Ghana lost 160,000 tonnes of cocoa to smuggling in the 2023/24 season, more than a third of total output, as farmers turned to smuggling networks over delayed payments and lower domestic prices compared to neighboring countries. That volume loss happened even as global cocoa prices were climbing sharply, which is why Ghana's cocoa export value still landed well below what the country's usual production levels would have generated.
Ores, slag, and ash added 2.34% ($395.29 million), and fruit and nuts contributed 2.30% ($387.29 million). Iron and steel took 1.71% ($289.14 million), and animal or vegetable fats and oils added 1.13% ($191.31 million). Plastics contributed 1.12% ($188.77 million), meat, fish, and crustacean preparations took 0.85% ($143.30 million), and aluminium and articles thereof closed out the top ten at 0.77% ($129.28 million). Outside gold, oil, and cocoa, no other category reaches even 3% of the total.
Gold-Trading Hubs Dominate the Buyer List
Switzerland bought 18.25% of Ghana's exports, worth $3.08 billion, the largest single destination. South Africa followed at 11.70% ($1.97 billion), and the United Arab Emirates took 10.15% ($1.71 billion), rounding out a top three that made up 40.10% of total export value. All three of Ghana's top buyers double as major global centers for gold refining and trading, a pattern that lines up directly with gold's dominance of Ghana's export categories.
China added 8.16% ($1.38 billion), and India contributed 6.98% ($1.18 billion), India being another of the world's largest gold-consuming markets. Canada took 5.07% ($855.49 million), and the United States added 4.67% ($787.79 million). Netherlands contributed 3.94% ($664.14 million), Italy took 3.68% ($621.43 million), and Brazil closed out the top ten at 3.10% ($523.25 million).
A Modest Pullback After a Record 2022
Confirmed data for Ghana's export total is available for 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023, with 2020 missing from this dataset. Export value stood at $16.77 billion in 2019, then fell to $14.82 billion in 2021, before climbing sharply to a record $17.38 billion in 2022, likely reflecting elevated global gold and energy prices that year.
The 2023 total of $16.87 billion, down 2.90% from that 2022 peak, still sits above every other confirmed year in this dataset except 2022 itself. Ghana's export total has become increasingly dependent on how gold and oil prices move globally, since those two categories alone now account for nearly seven in every ten export dollars. The cocoa crisis unfolding at the same time is a reminder that price gains in one category do not automatically show up in the headline total if smuggling or production problems are cutting into volume elsewhere on the list.