Africa’s Agriculture Trade in a changing environment

Wim Olthof of @europeaid : #rade is high on the agenda
of the EU cooperation with Africa especially
with the coming into place of the #AfCFTA

23 October 2019. Brussels Policy Briefing n. 58. Africa’s Agriculture Trade in a changing environment

@ctabrussels and @brubriefings #BBAfricaTrade

Boosting intra-African trade and deepening regional integration offer an effective channel to speed up Africa’s economic transformation. Higher volumes of intra-African trade in agricultural products and the elimination of non-tariff barriers have the potential to boost industrialization and enhance competitiveness, at country and industry levels, through higher investments in connectivity and infrastructure, both physical and digital.

Enabling policies that enhance intra-regional trade such as CFTA will be crucial to open up the continent to new investors and better opportunities for its entrepreneurs. As important will be allocating greater public expenditures to agriculture and to agricultural research and development in particular, harmonising regulations and decreasing barriers to intra-regional trade and providing an enabling environment for value chain development by strengthening market institutions and investing in infrastructure.

Note and Programme

Panel 1: New opportunities in regional trade for Africa 
This panel discussed trends and prospects of regional trade in Africa in the light of new policy
developments as well as Africa’s recent performance in different markets.

• What do we know about intra-regional trade in Africa: findings of AATM 2019 Antoine Bouet, Senior Research Fellow and co-leader of the Globalization and Markets Program in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division (MTID), IFPRI 
• Impact of the CAP and lessons learned for Africa’s agricultural regional trade Alan Matthews, Professor of European Agricultural Policy, Trinity College, Ireland 
• Supporting agribusiness development and industrialisation in the continent Mariam Yinusa, Principal Financial Economist, African Development Bank (AfDB) 
• Investing in inclusive agricultural trade that benefits farmers Hanna Saarinen, Policy Advisor Food, Agriculture, Land, Oxfam EU 

Panel 2: Successes in regional trade
This panel presented some successes and innovative models in regional trade across regions in Africa and lessons learned for upscaling and expanding regional trade.

• Africa-EU trade relations in agriculture and agrifood sector Cécile Billaux, Head of Unit, DG Trade, European Commission 
• Opportunities in added-value products in local and regional markets Rose Mutuku, Managing Director, Smart Logistics Solution, Kenya 
• From Bean to Bar: capturing value-added from cocoa Komi Agbokou, Founder and President, Togo Choco  

Related:

This is the second annual Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM), a fl agship publication that is part of a collaborative initiative between the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). The reports assess emerging and long-term trends and drivers behind Africa’s trade in agricultural products— including global trade, intra-African trade, and trade within regional economic communities (RECs).

• Chapter 1 Overview [download]
• Chapter 2 Africa in global agricultural trade [download]
• Chapter 3 Intra-African trade integration [download]
• Chapter 4 Competitiveness of African agricultural value chains [download]
• Chapter 5 A global trading system in turmoil: What is at stake for Africa? [download]
• Chapter 6 Regional trade integration in Eastern and Southern Africa [download]