Exporters exposed to markets in Canada

Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in partnership with the Trade Facilitation Office (TFO), Canada, has held a day’s seminar for small and medium enterprises on market opportunities in Canada.

Dubbed: ‘Exporting to Canada,’ the seminar was attended by exporters and non-exporters who are interested in learning about new market opportunities on the Canadian market.

Participating Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) received an overview of the fundamental considerations required to ensure smooth entry and doing business in the Canadian markets.

Mr Stephen Normeshie, General Manager, GEPA, said the seminar was to keep the objectives of GEPA to undertake programmes and activities to promote and accelerate the development and growth of the non-traditional exports (NTEs). He said under the TFO programme, GEPA would be equipped to offer more targeted training and business counselling services to make exporters competitive, particularly in the Canadian Market.

He said in spite of the opportunities in the Canadian market for NTEs, Ghana’s share of that market was woefully small. Total exports from Ghana to Canada in 2013 amounted to nearly 23 million dollars and for the first five months of 2014 exports reached 9.45 million dollars. Export product categories to Canada include foodstuffs, wood products, vegetables, precious stones and metals and vegetable oils.

Mr Normeshie said some of the reasons for this could be attributed to unfamiliarity with the requirements of the Canadian market. “It is for this reason that GEPA is happy to collaborate with the Trade Facilitation Office of Canada to organise the two seminars on exporting to Canada this month”.

Mr Normeshie urged exporters to take keen interest in order to better appreciate the Canadian market and assured them of GEPA’s support to get them ready to access that market. He encouraged exporters to place the issue of quality, credibility, and hard work as their cardinal principles in their exporting business.

The National Export Strategy and Development Programme aims at increasing non-traditional export revenues from the current 2.436 billion dollars to five billion dollars by 2017. Under the strategy, GEPA and other stakeholders were being equipped with the necessary resources to ensure a successful implementation of the strategy.

In a presentation on Exporting to Canada, Ms Belen S. Mulugeta, Project Manager of TFO, said imports to Canada were increasing but there was a huge gap that Ghana could tap into. Ms Mulugeta said while imports to Canada were on the rise, exports from Ghana to Canada were volatile and falling.

She said imports from Africa represented just two per cent of total imports to Canada and called on the exporters to position themselves to be able to take advantage of the opportunities. Ms Mulugeta said Ghana must work to find out the reasons from the recent decline in exports to Canada and to identify new products.

She urged the exporters to ensure they meet the strict requirements for food standards in the Canadian market such as proper labelling, packaging, product classification and proper documentation. Mr David Dix, Economic Counselor Canadian High Commission, asked the exporters to be transparent in their dealings with Canadian companies, providing details of themselves.