There is space for Africa’s food market to triple in value, says the latest World Bank report Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness. The market is currently valued at $313-billion a year.
The report comes in a context of a continued decline in sub-Saharan Africa’s share of agricultural exports. Countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand export more agricultural products than all of sub-Saharan Africa together.
The report encourages countries to “harness investors’ interest in ways that generate jobs, provide opportunities for smallholders, respect the rights of local communities, and protect the environment."
A growing middle class on the continent, more expensive tastes, an anticipated boom in supermarkets and higher commodity prices are given as reasons.
Rice, poultry, dairy, vegetable oils, horticulture, feed grains and processed foods for local markets are identified as areas most likely to do well.
Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Malawi and Zambia are mentioned as examples of those already tapping into these markets, and it is farmers with greater access to credit, willing to modernize their practices, to make use of fertilizer, irrigation and new technologies that are leading the way.
Find the World Bank report here.
Relevant to this report in The Agri Handbook for South Africa are the Fertiliser, Speciality fertilisers and Irrigation chapters. There will be several others, of course (there are nearly 180 chapters in all!) Take a look at Precision farming and Hydroponics & undercover growing for example.
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