Africa should model agricultural value chains in highly-traded commodities such as avocados, cashews and pineapples on the already successful tea and potato value chains on the continent. That’s the advice of Bonapas Onguglo, head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) trade analysis branch, who believes their experience could provide valuable lessons on how to strengthen regional supply chains for other agricultural commodities and processed foods in Africa.
Tea grown in Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe was almost entirely bought, processed and consumed in Africa with tea growers in the first two countries relying entirely on African markets, he said.
Additionally, around 87% of all African potatoes traded within the continent came from South Africa and Ethiopia, with both countries relying entirely on their respective regional economic communities – South Africa through SADC and Ethiopia through the lesser known trading bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
According to a new Unctad report, present food production on the continent is characterised by low productivity and high unit costs as the potential of basic crops to form such agricultural value chains remains untapped in several sectors.
“The economies of many importing countries of African goods are still struggling to pick up and this has been hindering Africa’s growth,” said Onguglo. “If the continent wants to achieve its development objectives, it needs to start trading more with itself.”
He also said that regional value chains would allow African producers to upgrade their skills and production processes which in turn would improve their ability to compete more effectively and hoped that the Continental Free trade Agreement – to be signed in March this year – would help to boost Africa’s agro-industries.
“It’s not just a question of boosting trade in, say, pineapples and potatoes,” added Henrique Pacini, one of the report’s authors. “It’s also about getting African countries to produce and trade more pineapple juice and potato chips.”
