AGRF : Great debate on AATM report

During the 10th African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) organised by AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) in September, a big debate took place around the Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) 2020 report (Agri Digitale, 13 September). Dr Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairman of AKADEMIYA 2063, noted that “Africa is now exporting value-added products and is developing in the processed export segment. Africa is still a net importer and accounts for 10% of world agricultural production but only 5% of world agricultural trade.” Africa’s competitiveness on world markets is hampered by internal factors, with regulatory and administrative barriers within African countries also affecting intra-African trade. Trade between African countries accounts for only 16% of total African trade, while Africa’s trade with China and Europe accounts for 54%. James Duddridge, UK Minister for Africa, highlighted the effects of the Covid-19 health crisis on health and food security, the impacts of policies of border closures, import bans and increased border taxes that have restricted the movement of food. Dr Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), noted “the wastefulness of the food system related to production, storage, transport, processing, distribution and consumption resulting in a loss of income of US$800 billion”. She called for the development of inter-African trade, but noted that “trade within Africa is 63% more expensive”. Professor Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said that “intra-regional trade is constrained in its costs by a multiplicity of currencies – 42 in total.” He added that “a pan-African payment and settlement system has been designed to enable Africans to pay for intra-regional trade in local currency”. Finally, the removal of non-tariff barriers within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will further reduce economic barriers to intra-African trade.

Benin

Enabel digitising Benin’s pineapple sector

Aiming to digitalise the pineapple sector in Benin, in September the Belgian Development Agency Enabel organised a hackathon – “P-digitech: Technological and digital innovations for a successful pineapple sector” (Commodafrica, 25 September). This competition pitted 20 projects against each other, and eight start-ups were selected. Enabel plans to use agricultural consulting and blockchain technology to improve the traceability of the sector, implementation of market information systems, support for microfinance institutions, and digitalisation of payments, among others. Digital training will be organised to ensure a good mastery of these technologies. Enabel organised the hackathon within the framework of its Programme for the development of entrepreneurship in the pineapple sector (Defia).

Kenya

Kenya offers EAC partners seat in UK trade deal talks

Kenya has welcomed its neighbours in negotiating for a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK for a duty and quota-free market (The Star, 23 September). The government said the two countries are committed to securing a trade agreement that encompasses the East African Community, should other partner states wish to come on board. The European Union says it will listen to Kenya’s proposal to move alone if the EAC fails to ratify the Economic Partnership Agreement as a bloc. “However, the UK and Kenya will not stand still and are working at pace to secure an agreement before the end of UK’s transition period with the EU at the end of the year,” said Trade Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina. Such an agreement would provide a transition mechanism for Kenya and enable other EAC partner states to join when they are ready to do so while negotiations continue. UK’s exit from EU has a timeline of December 31, and failure to have a trade deal will expose Kenyan exports to higher tariffs, as the EAC-EU EPA terms will not be applicable in UK. In January, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to negotiate an economic partnership agreement, to secure the interests of the two counties in future trade and investment.

Rwanda

Business picking up for Rwandan horticulture

Over the past few weeks business has been picking up for Rwandans in the horticulture sector (Fresh Plaza, 22 September), with the country recording a total of 305.6 tons of fresh produce in week 38. Rwanda’s horticulture sector has been steadily growing. Rwanda’s fresh products are branded under the “Rwandafresh” brand, and processed products are certified for current world quality industrial standards. According to a National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) statistical report (2018–2019) on the performance of the agri-exports sector, a total volume of 37,343 tons of horticultural produce were exported from Rwanda during the 2018–2019 fiscal year, as compared to 30,097 tons of horticultural produce exported during 2017–2018. Growth in horticultural export volumes from Rwanda was at 24%, which transformed to 16% increase in export revenues at US$27,174,785 in 2018–2019 compared to US$23,439,874 earned from horticultural exports during 2017–2018. According to taarifa.rw, horticultural export revenues (US$27,174,785) earned from vegetables, fruits and flowers during the 2018–2019 fiscal year represented a significant 5% of the total of US$465,405,334 earnings from agricultural exports. Vegetables contributed a significant percentage (57.5%) of horticulture export products, followed by fruit (30.9 %) and then flowers (11.6 %). The main vegetable products exported from Rwanda were cabbage, fresh tomato and tomato paste, onions, French beans, green pepper and chili pepper. The Democratic Republic of Congo was a leading destination where 72% of vegetables were exported, followed by Uganda (20%), UK (3%) and France (3%). Other export destinations of Rwandan vegetables included Burundi and China.

Tanzania

Vegetable traders should focus on Middle Eastern markets

The World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Dr Gabriel Rugalema, says there is high demand in the transcontinental region in Afro-Eurasia for a variety of vegetables, including cabbage, spinach and chard (Fresh Plaza, 22 September). According to Dr Rugalema, the Tanzanian Government has created an enabling environment for traders to export their produce overseas, urging them to utilise such an opportunity. He mentioned South Africa, Kenya and Ghana as countries whose economies depend on exports, mainly vegetables. “Tanzania has enough local experts to grow vegetables,” he said. “With greater government emphasis on horticulture, farmers can get seeds, inputs and the knowledge they need to produce vegetables and uplift their livelihoods.” He added that accessing affordable quality seeds was one of the major challenges facing vegetable farmers. The World Vegetable Center holds Africa’s largest collection of vegetable seeds, with more than 3,000 samples, including more than 2,400 samples of nutritious traditional African vegetables such as amaranth, spider plant, Ethiopian kale and African eggplant.

Togo

White wine from pineapples

Three young Togolese entrepreneurs have launched the production of good wine made from locally produced pineapples (Agridigitale, 7 October). According to the young promoters, the transformation of pineapple into white wine brings real added value to the pineapple processing sector in Togo. “We have been working hard on the quality of the finished product throughout 2019. It was finally in March 2020 that we finally achieved a first result. A wine without chemical additives and which is preserved in a natural way”, says Désiré Deklo, the group’s biologist. The entrepreneurs dream of going to scale and hope to be supported to develop their business. They are also developing a red wine from hibiscus flowers, which has also been on the market since 2019.