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Africa’s food market can hit $1 trillion by 2030 – World Bank

By on March 5, 2013

A report released by the World Bank on Monday predicted that Africa’s Agricultural sector could become a $1 trillion industry by 2030, if governments and the private sector put up better policies and empower African farmers.

According to the report, African farmers have a unique opportunity to tap into growing demand from a promising middle class with more expensive tastes, an expected four-fold increase in urban supermarkets in Africa and higher commodity prices.

Rice, poultry, dairy, vegetable oil, horticulture, feed grains and processed foods for local markets were likely to be the most dynamic areas of agribusiness in Africa, the World Bank said.

Countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, Malawi and Zambia were already tapping buoyant agricultural markets, the Apex bank had affirmed.

“Africa is now at a crossroads, from which it can take concrete steps to realize its potential or continue to lose competitiveness, missing a major opportunity for increased growth, employment, and food security,” the report said.

Despite a decade of strong economic growth and a surge in private sector investment in the region, Africa’s share of global agriculture exports has fallen. Countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand export more agricultural products than all of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bank said.

The Bank said boosting agriculture should become the top priority of governments so that farmers can take advantage of the increase in global demand for food and higher prices.

The bank said that they should also look at ways to boost regional integration to promote more cross-border food trade by reducing check points.

The 2008-2009 global food price crisis prompted a scramble for land in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Madagascar’s president was toppled in 2009 after he negotiated a deal with a South Korean company to lease half of its arable land to grow food and ship to Asia.

“The challenge is to harness investors’ interest in ways that generate jobs, provide opportunities for smallholders, respect the rights of local communities, and protect the environment,” the report said.

“A key challenge is to curb speculative land investments or acquisitions that take advantage of weak institutions in African countries or disregard principles of responsible agricultural investment,” it added.

“Africa’s food market, currently value at $313 billion per year, and could rise if farmers modernize their methods and begin to have better access to credit, new technology, irrigation and fertilizers” the report said.