Gold, cocoa and oil are globally sought goods that Ghana has in abundance. That helps explain why the West African country earns more from exports than it spends on imports. But in exchange for favorable export conditions, Ghana and other African states have granted trading partners broad market access — an arrangement that does not always work out well for local producers.
One clear example: about 80 percent of the chicken consumed in Ghana is imported frozen from Europe, the US or Brazil, where producers often use only the breast meat domestically and export the remainder. Even after 30 percent import duties, imported chicken can be as much as 35 percent cheaper than locally raised poultry, according to a 2023 study. That price gap is making chicken farming less attractive in Ghana.
“If you produce the chicken, they’re not buying it. So you can’t produce it,” said Charles K. Donkor, chairman of the Poultry Farmers Association in Ghana’s Ashanti region, who runs a farm employing 200 people with thousands of laying hens. “We can’t create jobs for young people this way,” he told DW.
Background: free-trade treaties and market access
For about 50 years, a growing web of treaties has sought to structure trade between Europe and Africa. It began with the 1975 Lomé Convention between the European Community and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and continued with successors signed in Cotonou (2000) and Samoa (2023). Those framework agreements underpin many regional and bilateral free-trade deals.
Through these arrangements, 44 of Africa’s 54 countries have duty-free access to the EU’s internal market, often under “everything but arms” rules for developing countries. Yet such access does not automatically produce equal benefits for both sides.
Rising trade volumes, uneven balances
DW’s analysis of 25 years of trade shows a clear trend since 2000: trade between Africa and Europe has grown in both directions. In recent years, many African economies have recorded a trade surplus with Europe, meaning they earned more from exports than they spent on imports. But these surpluses are concentrated in a few countries and commodities.
Oil and gas exports from Libya and Algeria — and substantial fossil-fuel trade from Nigeria and Angola — account for much of Africa’s positive balance with the EU. Between 2020 and 2022 the value of those exports more than doubled as energy markets reorganized after the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Côte d’Ivoire is another notable surplus case, boosted by cocoa and rubber exports. However, more than half of African countries actually run a negative trade balance with Europe.
Dependency and volatility
Two further patterns stand out. African exports to Europe fluctuate more than European exports to Africa, because Africa ships many raw materials whose prices are set on volatile global markets, while Europe mainly exports processed or partially manufactured goods. That makes African economies more dependent on European buyers.
“Exports of goods from Africa to Europe amount to around 25–30 percent. But the African market is negligible for Europe,” said Anja Berretta, head of the Africa Regional Economic Program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. She noted that African exports tend to be largely unprocessed raw materials, while imports from Europe are often industrial goods with added manufacturing value.
Opportunities and limits
Despite the imbalance, there is scope to expand trade in ways that benefit both sides. Berretta argued that many African economies failed to reinvest commodity windfalls to diversify industry, leaving them vulnerable to price swings. She pointed to Ghana and Mauritius as examples of countries pursuing industrial diversification to cushion such shocks.
Joseph Matola of the South African Institute of International Affairs said the EU is looking to diversify suppliers and reduce dependence on the US, and is seeking critical minerals and other inputs that Africa can provide. “I think Africa has a lot of these minerals that the EU needs,” he told DW. Still, Matola stressed that African governments should prioritize exporting processed goods to capture more value locally.
The EU has offered support through the Global Gateway Initiative, pledging about €150 billion for infrastructure and energy projects in Africa. Meanwhile, Africa is trying to operationalize the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which entered into force in 2021 but has been slow to deliver on promises to dismantle trade barriers.
Non-tariff barriers and AfCFTA’s potential
AfCFTA aims to standardize markets and reduce non-tariff barriers — long border waits, differing customs procedures and poor infrastructure that make cross-continental trade slow and costly. “For example, if you try to get your goods from Namibia to Kenya, it takes a really, really long time,” Berretta said. Reducing these frictions would make African markets more attractive both to intra-African and international trade.
Matola hopes AfCFTA will also allow African countries to pool diplomatic and negotiating power rather than acting alone. “They should use the AfCFTA as a negotiating platform instead of acting alone. It would be helpful if many African countries did this,” he said.
DW analyzed trade flows over the past 25 years; data for 2025 were not yet available at the time of reporting. Data, code and methodological details underlying this story are available in the DW repository on GitHub.
Further data-driven stories by DW can be found on their site.
Isaac Kaledzi in Accra contributed reporting to this article.
Edited by: Sertan Sanderson