The sourcing of food from Africa for Africa has improved from 12 to 16%, but the continent still imports 40% of its food from Asia, a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found.
Furthermore, the study revealed that in the decade from 2009 to 2019 the continent’s food imports went from $24 billion to $32 billion, an increase of 33%
The report, titled: Africa’s Development Dynamics Report, Regional Value Chains for a Sustainable Recovery, 2022, also found that intra-African costs had returned to levels comparable to 2007.
Clearly, something is wrong with Africa’s self-sustainable potential, a realisation that directly affects the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Unfortunately, the official launch of the world’s largest economic bloc on New Year’s Day 2020 came at a very inopportune time, when the world was heading into a pandemic that caused market closures and trade havoc across the globe.
Now, with business more or less returning to a semblance of normality, it’s fitting to remember what African Business editor David Thomas wrote in February about AfCFTA – that it’s an ambitious trade pact that could harness a combined GDP yield of about $3.4 trillion through the assimilation of 1.3 billion people into a single market.
This, however, would depend on “significant policy reforms and trade facilitation measures across African signatory nations”.
In a statement released after its findings were made public, the OECD and the Africa Union, who assisted with the research, emphasised that AfCFTA offered opportunities to accelerate Africa’s productive transformation and sustainable recovery from Covid-19, but intra-African trade costs, limited competitiveness, and barriers to investment limited the development of regional value chains.
“Furthermore, policymakers on the continent should harness emerging global trends.”
If it were easier for African countries to trade with one another, the bilateral treaty balance vis-à-vis internal and external agreements wouldn’t be so heavily skewed against intra-African trade.
Among many issues, the AU and OECD report found that of the 54 African states, there were 854 bilateral investment treaties of which only 169 are intra-African.
There are green shoots of change though, in relation to Africa feeding itself.
In 2019, 79% of processed and semi-processed goods from Africa were internally traded, suggesting a decrease in imports of these products into the continent.
Africa also managed 41% of same-category exports to external markets.
