BRASÍLIA: Trade between Brazil and Ghana for the first semester of this year stood at US$259.9 million, the Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana, Madam Irene Vida Gala, has announced as her country marks its Independence Day today. As Brazilians remember September 7, 1822, when a declaration of independence from Portugal was made by Pedro di Alcântara, the son of the Portuguese King, she said Ghana’s exports to Brazil, which were mainly cocoa and its products, during the period was US$147 million.
The ambassador said Brazil’s exports during the same period to Ghana were valued at US$112.9 million. She told the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview at her office in Accra that 90.71 per cent of this amount was manufactured goods.
Madam Gala announced that Ghana’s trade surplus during the period came to US$ 34.2 million. She expressed happiness that bilateral trade between Brazil and Ghana reached its peak in 2011 at US$446.9 million, recording US$356.6 million in 2012, increasing to US$359.5 million in 2013, while the figure came to US$323.6 million in 2014.
In 2015, however, the trade totalled US$216.9 million, out of which US$30 million represented cocoa exports from Ghana to Brazil. Madam Gala again expressed happiness that trade between the two countries continued to grow, adding that Brazil also appreciated that Ghana was a consumer of its products. She said the trade levels indicated a tendency or relationship that was going to be maintained for a very long time.
