An Overview of Marketing of Ghana Natural Products

Abstract

The study finds strong correlations between natural products business performance and the impeding factors. The impediments include access to finance and markets, lack of herbal market information especially relating to external markets. Additionally, there is lack of processing capacity, while at the same time most if not all the natural products business operators lack technical training relating to product handling. However, there is big potential for success, the top ten traded natural products, may be exploited initially, both domestically and for export market, given range of perceived use. The constraints identified require concerted efforts from all stakeholders to recognize the importance of this sub-sector in providing opportunities to successful development.

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New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station
P-15009-1-06
November 2006

An Overview of Marketing of Ghana Natural Products



Ramu Govindasamy
Benjamin Onyango
Venkata Puduri
James Simon
H. Rodolfo Juliani
Juliana Asante-Dartey,
Hanson Arthur,
Bismarck Diawuo
and
Dan Acquaye










Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics
Rutgers Cooperative Extension
New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station
Cook College
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901

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An Overview of Marketing of Ghana Natural Products



Ramu Govindasamy
Benjamin Onyango
Venkata Puduri
James Simon
H. Rodolfo Juliani
Juliana Asante-Dartey,
Hanson Arthur,
Bismarck Diawuo
and
Dan Acquaye





Ramu Govindasamy is Associate Professor, Dept. of Agricultural, Food and
Resource Economics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Benjamin
Onyango is Research Associate, Food Policy Institute, ASB 3 Rutgers Plaza
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520; Venkata Puduri is Post Doctoral Associate,
Dept. of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Rutgers University, New
Brunswick, NJ 08901; James Simon is Professor, Dept. of Plant Sciences and
New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program Rutgers University,
New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA; H. Rodolfo Juliani is Research Associate, Dept.
of Plant Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Juliana Asante-
Dartey , Hanson Arthur, Bismarck Diawuo and Dan Acquaye, ASNAPP-Ghana,
P.M.B. (18) Kanda, Accra, H/NO C 205/29, Mempeasem, East Legon,
Accra, Ghana;
Correspondence Address

Ramu Govindasamy, Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics
Cook College
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
55 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8520
Phone: (732) 932-9171 ext. 254

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Ghanaian individuals with whom we interviewed for sharing their
information with us. We thank the USAID for providing funds to support this survey
work and our ASNAPP and PFID/NP programs. Specifically, we thank Carol Wilson,
USAID Cognizant Technical Officer of our Partnership for Food and Industry in Natural
Products (PFID/NP), a university led program supported by the Office of Economic
Growth, Agriculture and Trade (EGAT/AG) of the USAID (Contract Award No. AEG-
A-00-04-00012-00) in support of their global economic development programs. We also
thank Jerry Brown, USAID-Southern Africa and project officer, for his support and
encouragement on our ASNAPP programs and organization. Finally, we thank the New
Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program (NUANPP) and the New Jersey
Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University. For further information, see
pfidnp.org; and www.asnapp.org.



















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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................i
Table of Contents................................................................................................................ii
List of Tables.....................................................................................................................iii
Abstract..............................................................................................................................iv
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1
2. Survey and Analytical Methods...................................................................................... 4
3. Survey design.................................................................................................................. 5
4. Results and discussion.................................................................................................... 6
4.1. Operators Characteristics....................................................................................... 6
4.2. Business Characteristics......................................................................................... 7
4.3. Respondent Views on Herbal Products Business Constraints............................. 9
4.4. Respondent Views on the Herbal Business Future prospects.............................. 11
5. Commonly Traded Natural Products and Perceived Uses............................................ 13
6. Regression analysis....................................................................................................... 14
7. Conclusions................................................................................................................... 17
8. References:.................................................................................................................... 18













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List of Tables

Table 1: Wholesale Retail Business operators Characteristics........................................ 7
Table 2: Business Characteristics.................................................................................... 8
Table3: Herbal cosmetic Industry Constraints (in percent)........................................... 10
Table 4: Future Prospects of the herbal cosmetic industry (in percent) ........................ 12
Table 5: Distribution of Top Ten Natural/Herbal Products by Ghanaian Wholesalers/
Retailers........................................................................................................... 14
Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Explanatory Variables Used in the Regression
Analysis............................................................................................................ 15
Table 7: Regression Model Results............................................................................... 16





























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