Rice will soon be listed on the Ghanaian Commodity Exchange.
Launched in November 2018, the Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) continues to expand. In a statement issued on Monday, September 2, the Ghana Commodity Exchange announced that it will list paddy rice by the end of the year, making it the third most traded agricultural commodity after maize and soybeans.
To best structure this new sector, GCX, which had previously carried out a feasibility study on the local rice market, joined forces with the Ghana Rice Interprofessional Body (GRIB), the Ghanaian interprofessional rice body, and the John A. Kufuor Foundation. In fact, in a country that produces 450,000 tonnes of rice per year and imports nearly a million tonnes, the stakes are high: access to market prices, storage, post-harvest loss management, rice certification and standardization, quality control, access to finance, etc. These are challenges that future organized rice exchanges on the GCX will seek to address. In addition to secure storage, the trading platform plans to offer its members electronic warehouse receipts in order to guarantee them short-term financing from partner financial institutions. A system that, when the time comes, will have to be judged on the basis of its results. In the immediate future, however, it is in line with the inaugural address made by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo at the time of the launch of the GCX. « Ghanaian farmers will have access to secure storage for their crops and good storage management practices, improving their sales, » the head of state promised.
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According to data published by the Ghana Commodity Exchange, between the launch of the platform in November 2018 and the end of the trading week of August 2, 2019, a total of 68,751 tonnes of maize and 2,164 tonnes of soybeans were traded, through spot transactions. The Accra commodity exchange has also confirmed that it will soon offer derivatives (forwards, options, etc.) on its listed agricultural products.