Competitiveness and determinants of cocoa exports from Ghana
International Journal of Agricultural Policy and Research Vol.1 (9), pp. 236-254, November 2013
Available online at http://www.journalissues.org/journals-home.php?id=1
© 2013 Journal Issues
ISSN 2350-1561
Original Research Paper
Competitiveness and determinants of cocoa exports from
Ghana
Accepted 28 October 2013
Boansi David
Center for Development Research
(ZEF)
University of Bonn, Germany.
Author
E-mail: boansidavid@rocketmail.com
Tel.:+4915218152877
To formulate future cocoa policy prescriptions and ensure continuous contribution of the subsector to poverty reduction, income generation and growth of the agriculture sector, the present study analyzed the export performance and determinants of cocoa exports from Ghana. The Revealed
Comparative Advantage, Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage and multiple regression were employed as analytical tools using secondary data set from sources acknowledged in the study. Having tested for the appropriate standard Gaussian properties and performed all important tests, outcome of the analysis revealed that Ghana is highly competitive in exports of cocoa beans, total cocoa products and processed cocoa exports. In spite of improvements observed in the country’s export performance over the past three decades, there is potential for further improvement. This can be achieved through investment in productivity enhancing innovations, tightening of the loose borders of the country to minimize smuggling, holding onto the price stabilization system, continuous government support to the subsector and through timely adjustment of the exchange rate system.
Key words: Price stabilization, yield gap, value addition, government support, prices INTRODUCTION
Holding firmly onto, developing and sustaining subsectors on which a country’s agriculture strongly depends have been the actions reflected by various regimes in most of the developing countries worldwide. Such actions are reflected
in
Available online at http://www.journalissues.org/journals-home.php?id=1
© 2013 Journal Issues
ISSN 2350-1561
Original Research Paper
Competitiveness and determinants of cocoa exports from
Ghana
Accepted 28 October 2013
Boansi David
Center for Development Research
(ZEF)
University of Bonn, Germany.
Author
E-mail: boansidavid@rocketmail.com
Tel.:+4915218152877
To formulate future cocoa policy prescriptions and ensure continuous contribution of the subsector to poverty reduction, income generation and growth of the agriculture sector, the present study analyzed the export performance and determinants of cocoa exports from Ghana. The Revealed
Comparative Advantage, Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage and multiple regression were employed as analytical tools using secondary data set from sources acknowledged in the study. Having tested for the appropriate standard Gaussian properties and performed all important tests, outcome of the analysis revealed that Ghana is highly competitive in exports of cocoa beans, total cocoa products and processed cocoa exports. In spite of improvements observed in the country’s export performance over the past three decades, there is potential for further improvement. This can be achieved through investment in productivity enhancing innovations, tightening of the loose borders of the country to minimize smuggling, holding onto the price stabilization system, continuous government support to the subsector and through timely adjustment of the exchange rate system.
Key words: Price stabilization, yield gap, value addition, government support, prices INTRODUCTION
Holding firmly onto, developing and sustaining subsectors on which a country’s agriculture strongly depends have been the actions reflected by various regimes in most of the developing countries worldwide. Such actions are reflected
in