Rising Export Enterprises in the Gambia

By Betty Gomez/Baboucarr Camara

Supporting meaningful export-related projects that achieves sustainable economic growth in export competitiveness, value addition and diversification to create employment and wealth remains the hall marks of the 2021-2025 National Export Strategy (NES). At the international front, the export market remains highly volatile due to increasing global crises such as the war in Ukraine and uncertainty on the viability of major international trading currencies such as the US Dollar against major depreciating local currencies in Africa and beyond. At the home front, exporters who forms majority of foreigner currency users has not been resting in turning a tide that has already slided a fiscal imbalance of over 83% on GDP in 2021. The sector with potential of trying to realign the situation by virtue of its continued effort to explore the vast European and Asian markets in search of raw materials, products and services is generating more employment as perceived. The latest effort to look into the challenges and opportunities of the export sector is the ongoing data collection exercise by the export promotion and facilitation department of the Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency – GiEPA. The visits to exporting enterprises within the Greater Banjul Area on Wednesday continued at the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation formerly called GGC at Denton Bridge. The agro processing corporation was established in 1947 and has all its focus on cashew and groundnut with new transition to value addition. Over 1200 tons of cashew nuts and 9000 tons of groundnuts are annually exported to countries like Vietnam, China, Sierra Leone, Senegal and India by the Corporation. The team also visited Hansen Seafood Limited at Denton Bridge. Established in 2018, the company is exporting fish and fishing products including cuttle fish, shrimps, tiger sole, red sole crab, octopus amongst others. The enterprise now boost of a vast exporting market including Spain, Holland, Italy, and Belgium. A similar engagement was conducted on Bai Enterprise formally called Atlantic Seafood at Denton Bridge in Banjul which was established in 2006 and now exporting over 720 tons of marine products to Holland, Spain, South Africa, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Cameroon. The data collection exercise continues in the West Coast Region.