Ghana
Last updated: 07 March 2020
Profile
Profile
Forestry and legality
| Source | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Sub-Saharan Africa | (2019) | UNSD | |
| FLEGT status | VPA implementing | (2019) | FLEGT Facility | |
| Forest area | 9.3 | million ha | (2015) | FAO |
| Deforestation rate | -0.03 | million ha/year | (2010-2015) | FAO |
| Planted area | 0.325 | million ha | (2015) | FAO |
| Tree cover loss | 1.09 | million ha | (2001-2018) | Global Forest Watch |
| Tree cover loss (%) | 16 | % | (2001-2018) | Global Forest Watch |
| Tree cover gain | 135 | kha | (2001-2012) | Global Forest Watch |
| FSC certified area | 12,430 | ha | (December 2019) | FSC |
| PEFC certified area | 0 | ha | (December 2019) | PEFC |
| Double certified area (FSC & PEFC) | 0 | ha | (Mid-2019) | FSC & PEFC |
VPA status of Ghana
Ghana is widely expected to be the second VPA country, after Indonesia, to issue FLEGT licences.
Ghana and the EU announced the launch of the Final Joint Assessment of Ghana’s Timber Legality Assurance System in January 2019.
Consultants carrying out the assessment have met with Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and representatives of other government divisions involved with the Ghanaian Legality Assurance System (GhLAS).
The GhLas covers all national timber production and exports, of which the EU accounted for 11% in 2018, with around three quarters destined for Asia and the Far East.
While the direction of trade has changed, Ghana has carried forward the FLEGT commitment as the initiative aligns well with Ghana’s own forest policy to ensure all logging is sustainable and there is equitable sharing of benefits from forest use.
Although licences have yet to be implemented, the assurance system is now fully operational which applies to all companies engaged in the sector.
The GhLas ensures universal application of forest management prescriptions, which cover a wide range of environmental and social aspects as well as ensuring sustained timber yield and ensures these are transparent and measurable.
The GhLas tracking system provides for near real time reconciliation of data gathered using handheld devices in the field. Discrepancies, for example between the volume of logs harvested and those transported, which in the past would have only become apparent months later, are now identified within hours.
There is also a mechanism to exercise control at point of export of all wood products to ensure only compliant consignments enter the global market.
Data is gathered and made available on the results of field audits and this reveals that, as awareness of the level and intensity of scrutiny has increased amongst frontline staff and private operators, the number of non-compliances is falling.
Another key outcome of the VPA is that civil society is now closely engaged both in the process of monitoring compliance and multi-stakeholder deliberations have become the accepted approach to policy implementation.
The Ghana Forestry Commission’s (FC) Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) signed an MOU in March 2019 on funding for the project ‘Enhancing Stakeholders interest in the Domestic Timber Trade Network (DOTTNET) Process to assess demand and supply of legal timber in the Ghanaian domestic market.
The project is part of the FC’s strategy to ensure wider international recognition and acceptance of Ghana’s VPA and ultimately its resulting FLEGT licensed timber and wood products.
This, it says, requires a ‘well-structured, regulated domestic market’, which will also ‘propel development and growth of the timber industry’.
The DOTTNET process will bring together players across the domestic market supply chain, including loggers, sawmills and sellers to promote trade in legal timber, backed by a platform providing traceability of timber sources.
The preparation phase will examine trade access to legal material and communication to the market on the GhLAS.
Forest resources in Ghana
According to FAO FRA, 9.34 million hectares of Ghana’s total land area of 23.9 million hectares were forest in 2015. Between 1990 and 2015, the area of primary forest in Ghana was stable at 395,000 hectares, the area of “other naturally regenerated forest” increased from 8.18 million hectares to 8.62 million hectares, and the area of planted forest increased from 50,000 hectares to 325,000 hectares.
Around 8 million hectares of the land located in southern Ghana are categorized as high-forest zone that comprises several forest types: wet evergreen, moist semi-deciduous (southeast & northwest), dry semi- deciduous (inner zone), dry semi-deciduous fire zone, upland evergreen, southern marginal and southern outlier.
The semi-deciduous and evergreen forests have traditionally constituted the main timber-producing areas. The main species in the semi-deciduous forests are: Triplochiton scleroxylon (wawa), Mansonia altissima (mansonia), Nesogordonia papaverifera (danta) and Khaya ivorensis (mahogany) while in the evergreen forests the main species are Guarea cedrata (guarea), Tieghemella heckelii (makore), Tarrietia utilis (niangon) and Uapaca spp. (assam).
While the total area classified as forest increased in Ghana between 1990 and 2015, there was a significant decline in forest condition during this period. Significant portions of the Timber Production Areas were further degraded and officially designated as “Convalescence Areas”, while others were converted to plantations (Conversion Areas) by government and the private sector.
A rising proportion of timber supply in Ghana is expected to derive from plantations in the future. A government review in February-March 2012 identified 3.1 million hectares of potential lands suitable for forest plantation establishment including 135,000 hectares in reserves within the high-forest zone, 283,000 hectares in reserves in the savannah region, and 2.68 million hectares in off-reserve areas.
Industry
Industry
Economic and industrial status
| Source | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDP | 65.6 | billion USD | (2018) | World Bank |
| Population | 29.8 | million | (2018) | World Bank |
| Income group | Lower middle income | (2019) | World Bank | |
| Ease of Doing Business (EDB) Rank | 118 | / 190 | (2019) | World Bank |
| Global Competitiveness Index Rank | 111 | / 141 | (2019) | World Economic Forum |
| Liner Shipping Connectivity Index | 19.8 | (maximum value in 2004 = 100) | (2019) | World Bank |
Timber industry competitiveness of Ghana
A World Bank report published in December 2019 on “Realizing Ghana’s Potential for Economic Diversification to Create More, Betters jobs” highlights that Ghana’s productivity levels are relatively high in the African context, although still lagging most other lower-middle and middle-income countries.
According to Ghana government data, economic growth in the country has rebounded strongly from 3.4% in 2016 to an average of over 7% in 2017 and 2018.
Following a period of decline between 2013 and 2016, Ghana’s performance against international competitiveness indices improved in 2017 and 2018.
Ghana slipped sharply down the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index from 67th in 2013 to 120th in 2017 but recovered slightly to rank 114th in 2018. Ghana’s ranking on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness index also improved slightly from 114th in 2017 to 106th in 2018.
On the Connectivity Index, in 2018 Ghana (75th) remained below RoC (64th) and Cameroon (63rd) but was ahead of Côte d’Ivoire (77th) and Gabon (89th).
While Ghana’s overall economic performance improved in 2017 and 2018, the situation in the forestry and timber sector is less positive.
The Ghana Timber Millers’ Organisation reported in April 2018 that 96 timber companies had shut down in the past 15 years, thereby reducing employment in the wood processing sector by 75,000 to about 20,000.
The 2018 report by the IMM Ghana correspondent indicates industry contraction is linked, among other things, to declining availability of commercially valued wood species, which entails further competitive disadvantages such as underutilisation of plant capacity and increased costs of sourcing materials over long distances.
In 2018, five large companies dominated the wood processing and export business in Ghana. Three of these companies are diversified in their product range and have invested in new technologies such as lamination, finger jointing and moulding. One of these companies reduced production and exports considerably in 2018, running only its plywood operations, due to financial difficulties. Another company that had operated from two sites moved machinery to consolidate production on one site closer to its forest resource.
Newly emerging and small to medium-sized companies are not focused on investment in technology or product innovation. Instead, they install thin-blade mobile sawmills and are located around forest fringes and in remote communities. There are no reliable data sources on the number of such companies active in Ghana.
Trade Overview
Trade Overview
Highlights
According to the ITTO Biennial Review, Ghana log production was 2.45 million m3 in 2018, the same as the previous year but down from 2.65 million m3 in 2016.
The ITTO Biennial Review reports 483,000 m3 of log exports by Ghana in 2018, a rise from 446,000 m3 in 2017 but less than 660,000 m3 in 2016.
Ghana’s annual production of sawnwood, plywood and veneer is assessed by ITTO to have been flat between 2015 and 2018, respectively at 534,000 m3, 262,000 m3, and 167,000 m3.
Ghana’s exports of sawnwood are estimated by ITTO to have been 98,000 m3 in 2018, up from 89,000 m3 in 2017, wile exports of veneer were 11,000 m3, down from 16,000 m3 the previous year, and exports of plywood were 24,000 m3, the same as the previous year.
Ghana’s imports of primary wood products are negligible, estimated by ITTO to have comprised 13,000 m3 of logs, 3,000 m3 of sawnwood, and 16,000 m3 of veneer in 2018.
Ghana’s imports and exports of timber products in the latest 12 months (USD value from January 2019 to December 2019)
NOTE: Mirror data from STIX, drawing on trade data reported by Ghana’s main trading partners, is used. Read more about the data in ‘Data Sources and Issues’.
Hover over the chart to see the value.
| Imports (272.58 Million USD) | Exports (165.38 Million USD) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region | Country | Product | Product | Country | Region |
Ghana’s production, imports, exports and domestic consumption of primary wood products in 2018
(data source: ITTO) Hover over the chart to see the value.
Trend in production, imports, exports and domestic consumption of primary wood products (logs, sawnwood, plywood, and veneer) in Ghana
(data source: ITTO) 
Imports
Imports
NOTE: Mirror data from STIX, drawing on trade data reported by Ghana’s main trading partners, is used. Read more about the data in ‘Data Sources and Issues’.
Highlights
In 2018, Ghana imported paper products with total value of US$195 million, up from around US$170 million the previous year. Imports of paper products from China decreased from US$46 million in 2017 to US$43 million in 2018, but imports increased from Indonesia (US$12 million to US$20 million) and India (US$14 million to US$20 million) during the same period.
In 2018, Ghana imported wood and wood furniture products with total value of US$72.6 million, a slight rise compared to US$71.7 million in 2017, but down from US$97.1 million in 2016. In quantity terms, imports increased consistently from 74,000 tonnes in 2016, to 78,000 tonnes in 2017 to 88,000 tonnes in 2018.
Imports of wood and wood furniture products from the EU increased significantly, from US$15.5 million in 2015 to US$26.6 million in 2018 when they accounted for 37% of all import value. Imports from the EU comprise mainly further processed products, including joinery and furniture, alongside panel products.
Imports of wood and wood furniture products from China have also been rising, from US$18.9 million in 2015 to US$24.1 million in 2018, mainly comprising wood furniture, panel products and joinery items such as doors.
Ghana imported around 10,000 m3 of pine logs valued at nearly US$1 million from South Africa in 2018, up from only 3,000 m3 valued at US$350,000 the previous year. However, Ghana’s imports of wood and wood furniture products from all other African countries are negligible.
Trend in Ghana’s timber product imports by region (12-month rolling averages)
Ghana’s top 5 import partners in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
| Country | Value (Million USD) |
|---|---|
| China | 105.50 |
| United States | 44.24 |
| Indonesia | 19.08 |
| United Kingdom | 13.35 |
| Italy | 13.00 |
Ghana’s timber product imports by product group in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
| Product | Value (Million USD) |
|---|---|
| Paper | 131.49 |
| Furniture | 71.67 |
| Wood | 59.67 |
| Pulp | 9.74 |
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Ghana’s timber product imports by product group and region (12-month rolling averages)
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Ghana’s timber product imports from top 5 origin countries by product group (12-month rolling averages)
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Total value of Ghana’s wood product imports from top 5 origin countries in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
(unit: 1000 USD)
| Composite panels | Fuel and charcoal | Joinery | Logs and other raw wood | Other processed wood | Pallets, packaging and barrels | Sawnwood and mouldings | Veneers and plywood | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All countries | 4,872 | 108 | 4,470 | 11,619 | 25,416 | 458 | 4,786 | 7,946 |
| Rank 1 | China 3,803 | China 56 | China 1,479 | United States 4,238 | United States 24,036 | Spain 351 | China 2,202 | China 7,794 |
| Rank 2 | Spain 452 | Ireland 25 | Portugal 1,254 | Chile 4,210 | China 936 | United Kingdom 47 | Netherlands 1,449 | Italy 52 |
| Rank 3 | Austria 211 | Indonesia 20 | Italy 949 | South Africa 3,094 | South Africa 100 | Italy 30 | Latvia 619 | South Africa 44 |
| Rank 4 | Portugal 87 | South Africa 7 | Spain 280 | Canada 34 | Belgium 99 | Germany 13 | United States 104 | Germany 28 |
| Rank 5 | Germany 77 | South Africa 122 | United Kingdom 22 | Ireland 58 | Belgium 7 | Belgium 93 | United States 21 |
*Wood products are products under Chapter 44 of Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS).
Exports
Exports
NOTE: Mirror data from STIX, drawing on trade data reported by Ghana’s main trading partners, is used. Read more about the data in ‘Data Sources and Issues’.
Highlights
Analysis of data from the Global Trade Atlas, BTS Ltd, Eurostat COMEXT and UN COMTRADE, indicates that Ghana’s total wood products exports were 467,000 tonnes in 2018, 3% more than in 2017. Exports in the first seven months of 2019 were just over 300,000 tonnes, 3% less than the same period in 2018.
In 2018, 74% of Ghana’s exports comprised products categorised by trade partners under HS4403 which includes all “Wood in the Rough - Stripped Or Not Of Sapwood” which allows for some processing to remove bark and sapwood. The share of this product group in total exports fell from 77% in 2017 with most destined for China, India and Viet Nam.
In 2018, 16% of Ghana’s wood exports comprised sawnwood, up from 14% in both 2016 and 2017.
The majority of sawnwood exports comprise air dried products, notably of rosewood and teak destined for Asian markets, but some is kiln dried, mainly of wawa (about half of KD volume) with smaller volumes of mahogany, cedrela, and a wide range of species including odum, koto/kyere, sapele, edinam, and black ofram.
The share of veneer in Ghana’s exports fell from 4% in 2016, to 3% in 2017 and to 2% in 2018 (in quantity terms, veneer is more important in value terms). The decline is indicative of the low availability of good quality and larger logs suitable for veneers.
Around 70% of Ghana’s veneer exports comprise sliced products, in a variety of species including asanfina, koto/kyere, sapele, chenchen, and ceiba.
Sliced veneer exports are destined mainly for Italy, taking around one third of volume, followed some distance behind by Egypt, Morocco, UAE, and China.
The remaining veneer exports comprise rotary product, mainly ceiba, destined for Spain (around 40%), USA (around a quarter), Egypt, and Morocco.
Plywood was formerly a significant export product for Ghana, but trade has dwindled in recent years. In 2018, only around 2% of Ghana’s export volume comprised plywood.
Nearly all Ghana’s plywood exports are of ceiba and are transported overland to neighbouring African countries, notably Niger, Burkina Fasso, Nigeria, Benin and Togo.
In recent years, only one Ghanaian company has exported plywood to markets outside Africa, nearly all to South Korea.
In 2018, the EU accounted for 5% of Ghana’s total wood product export volume, the same proportion as in 2016 and 2017.
China accounted for 38% of Ghana’s timber product export volume in 2018, down from 44% in 2017 and nearly 50% in 2016. Ghana’s exports to China fell by 10% from 198,000 tonnes in 2017 to 179,000 tonnes in 2018 and were down a further 3% in the opening seven months of 2019.
Most exports to China comprise logs, notably of rosewood and plantation teak. However, between 2017 and 2018, Ghana’s exports of logs to China declined by 15% from 185,000 tonnes to 156,000 tonnes, while exports of sawn timber increased by 73% from 12,500 tonnes to 21,500 tonnes. The partial switch from logs to sawnwood in exports to China continued in the first half 2019.
In contrast to China, Ghana’s exports to India increased by 33% between 2017 and 2018, from 107,000 tonnes to 143,000 tonnes. Nearly all this comprised logs, mainly of plantation teak.
According to data compiled by Forest Trends, Viet Nam imported 69,300 tonnes of wood products from Ghana in 2018, 15% less than the previous year. In 2018, Viet Nam’s imports of logs from Ghana declined by 14% to 49,700 tonnes, while imports of Ghanaian sawnwood declined by 15% to 19,600 tonnes. In 2018, Viet Nam accounted for around 15% of Ghana’s wood product exports, down from 18% in 2017.
Total value of Ghana’s exports of timber products in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
| Total export: | 165.38 Million USD |
| Total export to EU: | 35.65 Million USD |
| Total export to other regulated countries (Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Republic of Korea, United States of America, and Viet Nam): | 0.37 Million USD |
Trend in Ghana’s timber product exports by region (12-month rolling averages)
Ghana’s top 5 export partners in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
| Country | Value (Million USD) |
|---|---|
| China | 113.10 |
| United States | 13.23 |
| Germany | 9.57 |
| Italy | 6.19 |
| Belgium | 6.00 |
Trend in Ghana’s timber product exports to EU and other regulated countries (12-month rolling averages)
*Other regulated countries include Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Republic of Korea, United States of America, and Viet Nam
Total value of Ghana’s exports by timber product group in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
| Product | Value (Million USD) |
|---|---|
| Wood | 164.78 |
| Furniture | 0.58 |
| Paper | 0.02 |
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Trend in Ghana’s exports by timber product group and region (12-month rolling averages)
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Trend in Ghana’s exports to top 5 destination countries by timber product group (12-month rolling averages)
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Trend in Ghana’s timber product exports to regulated (EU and others) and unregulated countries (12-month rolling averages)
*Timber products are categorized according to Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) codes: wood (chapter 44), pulp (chapter 47), paper (chapter 48) and furniture (chapter 94)
Total value of Ghana’s wood product exports in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
(unit: 1000 USD)
| Fuel and charcoal | Joinery | Logs and other raw wood | Other processed wood | Pallets, packaging and barrels | Sawnwood and mouldings | Veneers and plywood | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All countries | 792 | 2,656 | 76,655 | 1,099 | 3 | 67,446 | 16,130 |
| Rank 1 | United Kingdom 678 | Belgium 1,647 | China 76,521 | China 563 | Spain 2 | China 34,422 | Italy 4,731 |
| Rank 2 | Bulgaria 51 | France 585 | Ireland 110 | United States 286 | South Africa 1 | United States 8,987 | United States 3,883 |
| Rank 3 | Ireland 24 | Greece 332 | Spain 18 | Germany 98 | Germany 8,636 | Spain 1,710 | |
| Rank 4 | China 12 | Italy 46 | Hungary 4 | France 69 | Belgium 4,080 | China 1,565 | |
| Rank 5 | Poland 11 | United Kingdom 25 | Germany 2 | United Kingdom 34 | United Kingdom 2,360 | Germany 836 |
Trend in Ghana’s wood product exports to regulated countries (12-month rolling averages)
*Regulated countries include European Union, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Republic of Korea, United States of America, and Viet Nam.
EU Imports
EU Imports
(data source: Eurostat COMEXT)
Highlights
EU imports of wood products from Ghana increased by 7% from 23,400 tonnes in 2017 to 25,000 tonnes in 2018. The rising trend continued in 2019, with EU imports from Ghana up a further 5% in the first seven months of the year.
In 2018, EU imports of sawnwood from Ghana increased by 14% to 15,250 tonnes, while imports of mouldings from Ghana increased by 3% to 2,100 tonnes. However, EU imports of veneer from Ghana fell by 10% to 5,000 tonnes in 2018. EU imports of other wood products from Ghana are negligible.
Trend in EU imports of timber products from Ghana by product group (12-month rolling averages)
Trend in EU timber product imports from Ghana to top 5 destination countries (12-month rolling averages)
Trend in timber product imports from Ghana to top 5 EU countries by product group (12-month rolling averages)
Trend in EU imports of wood products from Ghana by product group (12-month rolling averages)
Trend in wood product imports from Ghana to top 5 EU countries by product group (12-month rolling averages)
Total quantity of EU imports of wood product from Ghana to top 5 destination countries in the latest 12 months (from January 2019 to December 2019)
(unit: kg)
| Fuel and charcoal | Joinery | Logs and other raw wood | Other processed wood | Pallets, packaging and barrels | Sawnwood and mouldings | Veneers and plywood | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All countries | 1,529,978 | 1,464,622 | 108,625 | 96,589 | 5,790 | 18,964,705 | 4,811,861 |
| Rank 1 | United Kingdom 1,269,004 | Belgium 899,475 | Ireland 71,275 | Germany 34,210 | Spain 5,790 | Germany 6,535,218 | Italy 2,702,531 |
| Rank 2 | Bulgaria 200,014 | France 320,322 | Spain 27,160 | France 33,830 | Belgium 3,924,033 | Spain 1,065,343 | |
| Rank 3 | Poland 24,960 | Greece 175,972 | Hungary 9,394 | United Kingdom 21,409 | United Kingdom 1,684,271 | Denmark 342,154 | |
| Rank 4 | Portugal 21,000 | Italy 46,114 | Germany 796 | Spain 5,904 | France 1,486,541 | Germany 299,247 | |
| Rank 5 | Ireland 15,000 | Spain 12,281 | Netherlands 542 | Italy 1,397,173 | Greece 199,476 |
*Wood products are products under Chapter 44 of Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS).
Data Sources and Issues
Data Sources and Issues
Mirror data from STIX, drawing on trade data reported by Ghana’s main trading partners, is used for regular monthly trade updates in this Country report.
A significant weakness of this data source is that there is no regular reporting by Viet Nam and India, two of Ghana’s major trading partners.
The commentary in this report draws on additional secondary sources, notably Ghana annual trade data from the IHS Markit Global Trade Atlas (subscription service).
An alternative and comprehensive source of data on Ghana export trade is the monthly Timber Export Permit Report issued by the Timber Export Development Division of the Ghana Forestry Commission. This data is not used in the IMM VPA country report because it is not provided in a digital format and not structured according to the international HS system of product codes.
Unchanged production volume for sawnwood, plywood and veneer between the years 2015 and 2018 reported in the ITTO Biennial Review implies low quality data and irregular reporting of this data in the Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire.