Although Mrs. Gladys Asmah, Minister of Fisheries in Ghana, the West African country, considers her country the fourth biggest tuna producer in the world, the reality for Ghana has been very different over the last 2 years. Although tuna is one of its key exports, as a global tuna supplier Ghana does no longer play a significant role in the global tuna market place and it has seen its export to its main export market – the European Union (EU) – decline dramatically. This becomes quite evident if we study the numbers of the first 2 quarters of 2007.

Canned tuna was again the main export product to the EU over the first half of 2007, with 1.245.270 cartons being shipped , 7% short in comparison to the same period last year. The majority of the product was canned tuna in brine with 958.896 cases, for which the target market was the UK. This also counts for most of the tuna in oil. The other EU member states have a relative small share of Ghana’s canned tuna exports.

The first half of 2007 shows that there is no recovery in volumes and the 2 canneries in the country seem to struggle keep their production on the level of 2006. During last year, Ghana provided 2.623.649 cases of canned tuna – which was already a decrease by 15% from the 3.098.649 cartons exported in 2005. From 2003 to 2005, Ghana showed a relatively stable performance – but recent problems with declining catches and increasing competition seems to be hurting the local tuna industry.



Pre-cooked loins was another tuna product provided by Ghana to the EU. Last year the country exported 2.027 M/T of pre-cooked loins, an increase by 6% from 1.919 M/T. Looking at the last five years, the trend of this product is up every year. But through the first half 2007, Ghana did not export any pre-cooked tuna loins at all, which is similar to that same period last year. Most volume is usually realized during the last 6 months of the year.  France was the main destination with 95% of the total Ghanaian delivery of pre-cooked tuna loins. The remaining percentage went to Spain.

The African nation does not deliver a significant volume of fresh tuna products. Last year the country provided only 9 M/T of fresh loin to Europe.



This year companies in Ghana face the problem with their production due to a shortage of tuna raw material. According to Christina Sackey, secretary of the Fishmongers Association in Prampram, the fishing industry along the whole coast is collapsing.

Fish is one of Ghana’s important sources of protein and traditional mainstay of people diets. But despite 550 km of coastline and an abundance of lakes and streams, more than 30% of the fish that Ghanaians eat is imported from other countries, according to government statistics.

The number of workers in the fishing industry jumps to 2 million or about 10% of Ghana’s population when peripheral jobs are included, such as building.

Read other Focus On articles

Give us your opinion concerning this subject on the Tuna Discussion Forum