Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

356 Rebuilding West Africa’s food potential

Although they produce substantial amounts of palm oil, Ghana and the West Africa sub-region are not

self-sufficient in meeting their requirement for oils and fats (see Table 5).

Ghana exports, as well as imports, various kinds of vegetable oils, which are used for both industrial

and domestic purposes. Import volumes have been generally increasing over the years compared with

export volumes; groundnut oil, for instance, has seen substantial decrease in exports over the years.

Table 5. Demand and Deficits for Palm Oil Related Products: Ghana and West Africa

Product Ghana

(Mt) (Demand)

Ghana

(Mt) Supply

Ghana

(Mt) Deficit

(palm oil needed

to meet demand)

West Africa

(Mt) (Demand)

West Africa

(Mt) Supply

West Africa

(Mt) Deficit

(palm oil needed

to meet demand)

Laundry soaps 90,000 36,000 54,000 620,000 247,000 373,000

Personal wash 12,000 3,500 8,500 84,000 26,000 58,000

Fat & margarine 21,000 4,000 17,000 170,000 36,000 134,000

Edible palm oil 106,000 0 106,000 730,000 0 730,000

Total 261,000 21,000 240,000 1,934,000 134,00 1,800,000

Source: PSI Annual Report (2009), based on assumptions about trends in population growth.

Table 6: Exports and Imports of Vegetable oils (MT), Ghana (2000-2010)

Vegetable

oil

2000 2001 2002 2003 2005

EXP IMP EXP IMP EXP IMP EXP IMP EXP IMP

Soyabean oil 50.9 1094.0 4624.5 7825.9 7240.7 2235.3

Groundnut

oil 72.1 35.7^ 275.2^ 327.4 52.4 9.5 3.1 34.4

Olive oil 1.1 283.2 97.2 175.6 11.4 256.5 18.1 172.8

Palm oil

(crude) 12624.6 3461.0^6696 3698.7^14677 2776.2^13599 15392.5

Palm oil

(refined) 580.9 1695.0^1066 2038.8^7524268912783 4311.2 12768.1

sunflower 6.0 1712.0 19.4 1629.8 1989.8 2348.3 55.7

Coconut oil 8.0 212.4 212.4 150.1 108 4.5 10.4 19.6

Palm kernel

(crude) 441.0 1501.0^ 0.2^ 629.9 5.4^450 38.6 0.2

Palm kernel

(refined) 0.2 0.5^41 65.7^ 0.002 321.3 0.6 175.3 344.5

Maize oil 38.9 38.9 86.2 0.004 4 0.1 17.1

Margarine 77.9 5101.0 713.2 4431.6 7625.1 1680.1 13254 2592.1 6519.6

Other

vegetable

fats

751.0 2959.0 1439 5362.4 16088 131.6 25529 4702.2 8825.9

Total 14614.0 18093.0 9975 22475.4 57099 7775.2 75478 11851.1 46385.7

Total

veg. oils 15076.6 19979.0^10251 30383.2^66498 9438.3^75603 11868.4 47013.4

Source: United Nations Statistics Division. International Commodity Trade Statistics Database (COMTRADE)