Total earnings from non-traditional exports (NTE) declined in US dollar terms in 2009, compared to the general trend of increases of previous years, the latest report on NTE performance has shown. The Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC) 2009 NTE performance report reveals that total non-traditional export earnings in 2009 amounted to US$1.215 billion (GH¢1.723 billion), a decline of 9.28% compared with US$1.340 billion (GH¢1.422 billion) earned in 2008. From 1998 to 2000, NTEs recorded a stable performance, averaging about US$400 million, after which it grew at an average rate of about 14% from 2001 to 2008 - registering US$1.340 billion in2008. The report attributes the fall in NTE earnings to several major factors including the global economic downturn as well as a drop in Ghana's competitiveness due to an increased cost of production caused by high costs of imported raw materials and production inputs caused by a 34% depreciation of the Ghana cedi to the United States dollar. Another major factor was the low production volumes of key produce due to local producers' inability to supply the quantities required by industry and for export. Notable is the fall in tuna fish catch, and the low production of MD2 pineapple by farmers to feed some industries such as Blue Sky Company and for exports. Data from the Sea-freight Pineapple Exporters of Ghana (SPEG) show that since 2004 pineapple export volumes have dropped from a peak of 71,000 tonnes to about 29,000 tonnes in 2009, a decline of over 59 percent. Export earnings have also halved, from US$22 million in 2004 to US$11.5. Over the past five years, total national merchandise exports of Ghana have shown positive growth. Bank of Ghana data show this grew from US$2.76 billion in 2005 to a provisional US$5.89 billion in 2009, depicting a 113.41 % growth in 2009 over the 2005 figures. Within the same period, NTEs grew from about US$777.59 million to US$1,215.04 million, showing a growth rate of about 56%. However, the percentage contribution of NTEs to total exports fell from 25.75% in 2008 to 20.63% in 2009. Total earnings of the NTE sector in 2009, is made up of earnings from three main sub-sectors - Agriculture, Processed and Semi-processed products, and Handicrafts. Processed and semi-processed products accounted for 87.40% of NTEs. Agricultural produce accounted for 12.42%, and handicrafts accounted for 0.18%of total NTEs. Handicrafts registered the biggest decline of 31.62 percent from US$3.32million in 2008 to. US$2.27million in 2009; Agriculture followed with a 19.59 percent drop in earnings from the 2008 figure of US$187.62m to US$150.86m in 2009. Processed and Semi-processed products were the least decliner, registering a 7.66 percent dip, earning US$1,061.91 in 2009 from the 2008 earnings of US$1,149.99. The composition of the ten leading products reveals that seven out of the 10 products are processed and semi-processed products with fresh or chilled tuna, sheanuts and cashew nuts being agricultural produce. The highest earner, cocoa paste, and the lowest earner, cashew nuts, of the top-10 leading products earned US$285,725,061 and US$20,154,095 respectively. The total value of the top-ten earning products amounted to US$750,321,961 representing 61.75% of the total NTEs for 2009. Cocoa paste, which is the biggest earner, contributed 23.52% to total NTEs. A comparison of the performances of the ten leading products in the year under review to their performances in 2008 reveals that, with the exception of cocoa paste, articles of plastics and sheanuts recorded positive growths of 43.99%, 13.76% and 7.67% respectively, the remaining products recorded negative growths with veneers and plywood recording the highest declines of -40.76% and -48.73% respectively. Source: B&FT