Cooking oil remained Ghana’s largest informal food import during the first nine months of 2025, highlighting the country’s growing dependence on neighbouring countries to meet demand for essential food products.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s (GSS) Informal Cross Border Trade Report, cooking oil consistently topped the list of food commodities entering Ghana through informal trade channels between January and September, despite a slight decline in its overall share.
The commodity accounted for 16.3% of informal food imports in the first quarter before easing to 14.4% by the third quarter. Even with the decline, cooking oil remained the single largest food product imported informally into the country.
Rice was the second most imported commodity, making up 8.4% of informal food imports in the third quarter, followed by shea nuts at 7%.
The report also showed a steady decline in livestock imports, particularly cattle, whose share dropped from 6.9% in the first quarter to 5.5% by the third quarter.
Sugar accounted for 5.7% of informal food imports during the period, while maize imports remained relatively stable. Maize represented 4.7% of imports in the first quarter, rose slightly to 5.1% in the second quarter, and returned to 4.7% in the third quarter.
Beyond the commodity mix, the report points to a broader trend of increasing reliance on informal food imports.
Ghana’s informal food trade deficit doubled during the first three quarters of 2025, rising from about GH¢400 million in the first quarter to approximately GH¢800 million by the third quarter.
The widening deficit indicates that the country imported significantly more food through informal cross-border trade than it exported, reflecting persistent domestic supply gaps and strong demand for food products sourced from neighbouring countries.
At the same time, Ghana’s informal non-food trade surplus weakened. The surplus declined from GH¢1 billion in the first quarter to GH¢800 million by the third quarter, suggesting a shift in the composition of informal cross-border trade.
The findings underscore the increasingly important role informal trade plays in Ghana’s food supply chain, particularly as households continue to contend with food prices and traders rely on neighbouring markets to stock essential commodities.
The report also highlights the need to strengthen domestic agricultural production, improve food value chains and expand import substitution efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imported staple food products while enhancing long-term food security.
