The Conference on Promoting Regional Agricultural Trade and Value Chains kicked off on Monday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, bringing together a number of key actors involved in agricultural trade and the development of the region’s priority sectors (in particular staple food). The conference will also see representatives of the regional integration institutions, specialist regional agencies, producers’ organisations, traders, processors, agro-food companies, chambers of agriculture, warehouse managers, bankers, insurers, etc.

In Central Africa, agriculture is key to economic development. In some countries of the sub region, more than 60% of the population live in a rural environment, while 50% of the working population are involved in the agricultural sector.

The process of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), launched during the Summit of the Heads of State and Government held in Maputo in 2003, was recently realigned during the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union held in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) in 2014. In particular, the Malabo Summit strengthened the prospect of transforming agriculture so as to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth in Africa during the period 2015-2025.

The agricultural policies of the Central African countries follow a number of different approaches, depending on their urbanization levels and their strategies with regard to the exploitation of natural resources. One common characteristic to all of these Countries is that the level of local production and processing of food products is insufficient to meet consumer demand. A substantial majority of the countries in the sub-region are largely dependent on imported food products, which impact enormously on the region's balance of payments.

Despite its geographical situation and the potential complementarity in the trading of food and agricultural products, Central Africa remains one of the least integrated regions of the continent in terms of intra-regional trade, the movement of people and how the physical infrastructure interconnects.

Although regional trade integration could lead to improvements in the availability of food products and reduce the dependence on extra-regional imports, the region is far from economically integrated, with very low regional trade figures (approximately 1.2% in 2010). The main trading partners of the region's countries are the EU (32% of the region's trade), the USA (23%) and, increasingly, the emerging economies (including China, 16%).

The main constraints holding back regional trade in agricultural and agro-food products are: a) the inadequacy of supply and surplus production; b) the limited marketing capacity, particularly with regard to transport infrastructures and the structured and regulated cross-border markets; and c) the continuing Tariff and Non-Tariff Trade Barriers (procedures) for agricultural products. The poor performance of currency hedging instruments when trading is carried out between currency areas, also constitutes a significant constraint.

Situated at the crossroads between ECOWAS, COMESA and SADC, Central Africa has great potential for inter-regional trade, which is currently expanding. There are already substantial African investments, and these could increase in the coming years if the right conditions are created to encourage them.

As well as favourable agricultural and trade policies and a suitable regulatory framework, the countries of the sub-region must have the institutions and tools that enable them to provide a better structure for agricultural services and trade in agricultural and agro-food products, and to strengthen the inclusive value chains, essential for sustainable economic development. The region must also identify those regional value chains with the greatest structural potential for regional trade, so that it can support them at supranational level.

Supporting the structuring of both national and regional strategic value chains will then help to increase the value of products and producers’ income by reducing costs throughout the chain and distributing margins more equitably between the different stakeholders. The information networks and the growing role of new information and communication technologies (ICT) should help to support the more marginalised actors and improve the dialogue between the different sectors.

Topics to be addressed

Four topics will be addressed during the conference:

1. Progress report on regional agricultural trade and the performance of the strategic value chains: constraints and success factors

2. Regional regulatory and policy framework: moving towards greater coherence in trade and agricultural policies in Central Africa

3. The grain, livestock, fisheries, fruits & vegetables and roots & tubers sectors: what are the priority actions?

Structuring agricultural trade: which tools and institutions?

Marketing Information Systems (MIS): how can we develop sustainable systems?

Warrantage, commodity management and agricultural commodity exchanges: challenges and opportunities for the region

4. Cross-cutting topics:

Integrating women and youth in value chains

Funding the value chains: finding innovative approaches

The role of multi-stakeholders platforms: facilitating the emergence of sector associations (“inter-professions”)

Objectives and expected outcomes of the conference

This conference is a Central African initiative which, following on from the Malabo Declaration, endeavors to realize two of the seven commitments made by its Member States, specifically: commitment Number 2 on strengthening the funding of investments in agriculture, and commitment Number 5 on stimulating intra-African trade in agricultural products and services.

The conference will support the framework and priorities defined by the region in its PRIASAN and its regional Aid for Trade strategy. The unifying programmes for promoting value chains and developing intra-community trade remain at the heart of integration through trade and increased agricultural investment.

The aim of this conference is to provide a regional platform for dialogue and exchange for all of the public and private actors concerned:

• to review the challenges of transforming agriculture in order to exploit the opportunities related to regional trade in agricultural products and services;

• to produce a progress report on the development of the sub-region’s agricultural value chains, with the emphasis on food crops (corn, rice, manioc, yams and plantains, fruits and vegetables) and animal products (livestock meat and poultry) from case studies and comparative analyses;

• to exchange opinions and debate on the policies, approaches, tools and mechanisms needed to: (i) develop regional trade in agricultural products; (ii) structure and strengthen the strategic value chains; and (iii) fund investment in the strategic value chains; and

• to learn from the public-private partnerships (PPP) in order to help implement innovative and long-term solutions (e.g. the corridor approach).

Finally, the conference recommendations will have to be incorporated into the framework of the PRIASAN action plan, as will the arrangements for the governance system of the Regional Council for Agriculture, Food and Nutrition in Central Africa (CRAAN).

The conference will be structured with a view to producing a plan and schedule for the implementation of concrete activities and specific institutional responsibilities.