The African agri-food sector and challenges in accessing the EU and other international markets

Africa has the reputation of a continent that trades much more with external partners than with itself. A post from the World Economic Forum dated 2016 ascribes the reasons of the limited intraregional trade in Africa to the poor infrastructure network, onerous customs procedures, visa restrictions, energy and internet constraints, and the failure to produce value-added goods and to diversify economies, so to reduce reliance on natural resources and agricultural commodities export. A sector that is experiencing a slow, but continuous transition to value added products in Africa is the food and agribusiness sector.

African agrofood companies, however, still face huge challenges in accessing to the EU and other international markets due to strict and stringent food safety & quality and labelling requirements required in these jurisdictions. While food safety refers to all those hazards that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer (e.g. presence of contaminants such as aflatoxins, mycotoxins, pesticides and heavy metals residues, etc.), food quality includes the compliance of food with a series of characteristics that are acceptable to consumers in terms of appearance, shape, color, smell, texture, nutritional value, etc.

Labelling requirements, on the other hand, are referred to mandatory information to be included on food labels (ex. weight, name of manufacturer, sell-by date, nutrient information, etc.), and their purpose is to protect consumers from misleading characteristics, attributes or properties introduced by food producers exclusively for enhancing sales of their products, that in reality they do not have.

To ensure the safety and quality of food entering in their territory and to ensure that imported foods conform to national requirements on food safety, quality and labelling, many countries and regional blocks in the world have put in place food control systems with the aim of protecting the health and safety of domestic consumers.

Article 5.1 of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) allows WTO members to establish mechanisms for rapid and effective notification/communication between control authorities and operators whenever the introduction of a product into their territory can cause a potential risk to human, animal or plant life or health. The presence of a risk related to such products triggers a system of reinforced controls that may lead to an extension of inspection activities by customs authorities or any other competent control authorities.

The European Union, for instance developed the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), which aims at preventing the entry and circulation in the territory of the EU of those goods that pose particular risks to human, animal or plant health or that do not to comply with the safety standards set by the European legislation. The system enables the national food safety authorities of the EU Member States, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), and the EU Commission to electronically exchange information relating to safety and quality standards with each other. Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland and the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) are also part of this system.

A quick look at the database of alerts recorded in the RASFF portal shows that the presence of contaminants, heavy metals residues and of bacteria dangerous for the human health (e.g. Salmonella) are the main reasons for the rejection in Europe of products originating from Africa. It is sufficient to launch a research by selecting all African countries in the "country" box in the search engine, under the tab "origin", as shown in the picture below.

This is confirmed by a recent study from the EU-EAC Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP), which also indicates – with specific regard to products exported from member States of the East African Community to Europe -  the incorrect packaging and labelling as another frequent case of rejection of African products.

The conclusion is that in order to increase access to the European and other foreign markets, African countries have to spend more efforts in promoting and enforcing compliance of their products with food safety and quality requirements. In the agrofood sector, this implies the development of appropriate frameworks at both national, regional - and hopefully at continental - level to monitor and quickly report cases of non-compliant food commodities moving across borders through the use of rapid alert systems. Training and capacity building programs addressed to African companies and focusing on quality improvement are another challenge that needs to be addressed to ensure a higher level of penetration of African products in foreign markets.