Agricultural trade in Africa: Current trends and challenges

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dc.creatorMamboundou, Pierre
dc.creatorTraoré, Fousseini
dc.date2026-02-25
dc.date2026-02-27T16:14:38Z
dc.date2026-02-27T16:14:38Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:42:21Z
dc.descriptionAgricultural trade can play a central role in meeting people's food needs, both by increasing available supply and by boosting stakeholders' incomes, given that 60% of the labor force works in this sector (Bonuedi et al., 2020; Wonyra and Gnedeka 2023). However, an analysis of African agricultural trade performance over the past twenty years highlights some key issues to watch. First, African agricultural trade is the lowest in the world, not helped by high costs of trading and non-tariff measures. Second, a trade deficit that has been steadily widening since 2006 as Africa has become heavily dependent on imports of basic agricultural products such as cereals. The continent currently meets more than 40% of its cereal demand on world markets. This deficit in African agricultural trade is fueled by low productivity, linked to declining yields and a lack of sufficient investment in production, storage, processing, and marketing infrastructure, and rapid population growth and urbanization in Africa which has increased demand for imported food. Third, over the past two decades, the structure of African agricultural exports has remained largely undiversified, with unprocessed cash crops continuing to be the dominant export commodity. To better understand the dynamics of agricultural trade in Africa, this brief analyzes its performance, over the 2003-2023 period, by highlighting the most dynamic countries and regional economic communities, the most exported and imported products, and the continent's revealed comparative advantages.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/181883
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/112304
dc.languageen
dc.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Institute
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceMamboundou, Pierre; and Traoré, Fousseini. 2026. Agricultural trade in Africa: Current trends and challenges. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/181883
dc.subjecttrade
dc.subjectagricultural trade
dc.subjectmarkets
dc.subjectexports
dc.subjectimports
dc.subjecttrade policies
dc.subjectnon-tariff barriers to trade
dc.titleAgricultural trade in Africa: Current trends and challenges
dc.typeBrief

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)