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Paper short abstract:

Did China’s border closure during Covid give space for local Ghanaian producers to thrive? The paper uses interviews with Ghanaian plastic manufacturers, furniture makers, and coffin carpenters to explore the effects of supply chain disruptions from China.

Paper long abstract:

A common assumption about Chinese imports is that they replace local production for low-end goods in developing countries. The import of consumer goods from China to West Africa has been closely linked to commercial travel, and China’s border restrictions during the Covid outbreak put a near-halt to such travelling. Moreover, the pandemic led to a global logistics crisis that disrupted supply chains from China. This presentation asks whether Ghanaian manufacturers and artisanal producers were able to take advantage of these disruptions to increase their competitive position. Did China’s border closure give space for local Ghanaian producers to thrive? We address these questions by drawing on data collected among Ghanaian plastic manufacturers, furniture makers, and coffin carpenters, who all have faced competition from Chinese imports. Our analysis shows that supply chain disruptions from China had direct impact through the substitution of the products previously imported from China and indirect effects as traders’ capital was freed up to be reinvested in Ghanaian production. However, the supply chain disruptions were also costly for many Ghanaian producers, as they depended on Chinese intermediary products, tools, and other inputs. The case illustrates how economic lives in Ghana and China are so deeply intertwined that indiscriminate decoupling is neither possible nor desirable.