Egg Prices Stay High, GRA Targets Foreign Income, Cocoa Outlook Weak

Ghana’s economy is experiencing a mix of local market strain, aggressive tax enforcement, and muted export windfalls, as highlighted by three key developments this week.

Egg Prices Stay High Despite Farmgate Reductions

Egg traders in Accra say soaring poultry feed costs are erasing the benefits of record-high production, keeping market prices elevated despite farmgate price reductions. At Lapaz and Mallam markets, crates of eggs sell between GHC 65 and GHC 70, far above the GHC 40 levels of previous years. Traders argue sluggish sales,not oversupply,are driving the slowdown, with margins squeezed by transport and feed costs.

Elizabeth Nuertey, a trader at Lapaz, stressed that lowering feed prices is the only way to increase demand:“Farmers also depend on eggs to feed their birds. If sales are low, we as traders won’t have enough money to buy more eggs, which in turn affects farmers who rely on those sales to purchase feed.”

Ali Muhammed, CEO of the Greater Accra Poultry Farmers Association, revealed that farmgate egg prices have actually dropped, urging traders to pass reductions on to consumers. However, weak storage facilities and sluggish patronage continue to weigh on the sector.

GRA Targets Foreign Income Earners in Compliance Drive

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has intensified efforts to tax residents earning income abroad, leveraging global data-sharing networks to track foreign assets and earnings.Commissioner-General Anthony Sarpong revealed that over 1,000 letters have already been issued to Ghanaians with overseas income, requiring reconciliation of foreign tax payments with domestic obligations.

“This is an area where we have put it in a very high gear. Today, if you have investments, assets and you are earning income outside Ghana, we do receive this information,” he said at the 2025 Annual International Tax Conference.

The initiative is expected to widen Ghana’s tax net, boost non-oil revenue, and strengthen fiscal consolidation as government seeks new revenue sources.

Fitch: High Cocoa Prices Won’t Boost Growth

Fitch Solutions has cautioned that Ghana will see limited economic benefits from record-high cocoa prices, which averaged US$8,900/tonne in the first seven months of 2025, more than triple the 2005–2023 average.Despite the price surge, the report stressed that cocoa contributes little fiscal weight since neither Ghana nor Côte d’Ivoire reports cocoa revenues separately.

It noted that the absence of local value addition continues to mute the benefits. West Africa, despite being the largest cocoa-producing region, accounted for only 0.6% of global chocolate exports in 2024. This weak processing capacity prevents job creation and wider sector linkages, limiting cocoa’s multiplier effect on growth.

The price boom, driven by climate-related supply disruptions and three consecutive years of global deficits, risks bypassing local economies if structural bottlenecks remain unresolved.

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