[September 17th, 2021. The Eastern Africa Grain Council has today launched the 9th edition of the African Grain Trade Summit – EAGC’s high-level policy conference that shapes the strategic direction for the development of grain trade and the grain sector in Africa, held every two years. The Summit, hosted by EAGC in partnership with the Government of Kenya and grain value chain stakeholders, is set to be held on the 7th to 9th October 2021, at the Diani Reef Beach Hotel, in Mombasa, Kenya.
This 9th edition of the globally-recognized summit will be held during a critical period when supply food value chains are most fragile and therefore themed: “ The Future of Grain Trade in Africa: Revitalizing Resilience in Grain Value Chains” in a bid to deliberate and build a defined pathway that minimizes food systems exposure while anticipating risks for more resilient food value chains.
Africa is becoming increasingly important in global grain trade as evidenced by cross border trade volumes of over 568,000MT of maize, 486,000 MT of beans and 259,000 MT of rice traded across East African Community borders since the 2nd quarter of 2020. However, the pressure to feed the fast-growing and rapidly urbanising populations has resulted to a food production and productivity growth lag, widening Africa’s import gap which is projected to reach US$90 billion by 2030 from US$ 43 billion estimated in 2019.
In addition, Africa has in the recent past, owing to its untapped agricultural potential, witnessed increased interest from more advanced economies looking to invest in agricultural production to feed their industries and populations; exemplified by China-Tanzania deals for soybean production in Tanzania for export to China and the growing movement towards adoption of biotechnology in African food systems. It is these trends that present both the opportunities and challenges for Africa, and therefore present a need for strategic dialogue to equip the sector to navigate these opportunities and challenges accordingly.
The summit is anticipated to physically and virtually convene over 300 participants among them the President of the host country – the Republic of Kenya, Agricultural Ministers as well as other high level policy decision makers, agricultural researchers, experts and grain value chain stakeholders both in the public and private sector across the globe.
Speaking at the media launch, Mr. Gerald Masila, EAGC Executive Director indicated that the summit will capture more forward-looking business and regulatory concepts from the 1st AGTS held in October 2005. “We are hosting the summit at a time when the Covid 19 pandemic is still prevalent with the global economy striving to adjust to a new normal. To this regard, the 9th edition of the summit will focus on recovery of the grain sector towards its resilience against future disruptions.”
The Media launch was graced by EAGC partners in hosting the 9th AGTS among them the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), represented by Dr. Apollos Nwafor, the Vice-President in charge of Policy and State Capability. Dr, Apollos thanked EAGC for partnering with AGRA in the 9th AGTS towards improving policy predictability for an enabling environment for trade to thrive, noting the impact of the pandemic. “We have a persistent challenge of the Covid 19 pandemic which has had an impact on food security, at the risk of over 250,000 million people going hungry in the African Continent,’’ said Dr. Apollos. The Summit is anticipated to create opportunities for governments through trade policies that provide an enabling environment for trade and investment as well as provide a friendly environment for establishment of the private sector in the agricultural industry.
Based on the disruptions of the food supply chain during the pandemic, the summit will dive into the overall impact of the pandemic, review the adjustments that have been necessitated to adapt to the covid-19 crisis and explore the emerging opportunities whilst, looking into appropriate pandemic proof measures that transit into more resilient supply food systems that withstand future shocks.
Sub-Saharan Africa has struggled with consistent compliance with food safety despite presence of standards and other regulatory instruments. The pandemic has only made the situation worse, in which lies a greater risk to lack of food safety measures. The summit will seek to tap into innovations and regulatory models that improve compliance with food safety measures as food commodities move along the value chains while building resilience along the value chains.
Recent enforcement measures, such as Kenya’s temporary ban on maize imports from Tanzania and Uganda due to excessive aflatoxin levels provide cause to rethink regulatory approaches to fostering compliance with food standards. “The 9th AGTS is timely to explore stronger enforcement of policies which are much needed while at the same time strike a balance between regulation and supporting cross-border trade,“ stated Mr. Joseph Kimote, the Managing Director of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), representing EAGC Members in Kenya in the Board of Directors.
The 9th AGTS aims to unlock the challenges faced by the grain sector in accessing favorable financial services and solutions. Ms. Judyanne Wanjiku the Managing Director of EFKen Leasing Ltd noted that it is such interventions that have attracted EFKen Leasing Ltd to the 9th AGTS to provide solutions to the grain agribusinesses in Africa by scaling up the interventions already started in Kenya in partnership with EAGC. EFKen has been partnering with EAGC to support small holder farmers to access farm machinery for improved agricultural production. EAGC has brought together farmers and organized them into formal farmer groups – the Grain Trade Business Hubs, through which they can meet all their farmer requirements by bridging the market linkage gaps between the farmers and both the input service providers such as ourselves and the traders,” said Ms. Judyanne.
Mr. Emmanuel Asiimwe, Managing Director of Intergrated Agritech and Director of EAGC representing Uganda EAGC Members in the EAGC Board appreciated all media partners, representatives of the grain sector and sponsors of the 9th AGTS for gracing the launch of the summit. “We call upon grain farmers, traders, processors , service providers, public sector , development partners, researchers , foreign missions among others to join us for the summit as we provide an opportunity to shape the grain trade policy environment as well as opportunities to strengthen grain trade linkages and networks,” stated Mr. Asiimwe.
