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Despite Africa’s comparative advantage in agriculture, it accounts for the smallest share of global agricultural trade
NEWS ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | The African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have sealed a new partnership aimed at accelerating intra-African agricultural trade, in a move that comes against the backdrop of worsening food insecurity and growing pressure to convert Africa’s flagship trade agreement into tangible economic gains.
Signed on Feb. 14 on the margins of the 39th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, the Memorandum of Understanding between the AfCFTA Secretariat and AGRA signals a deliberate shift from policy design to implementation, with agriculture positioned at the centre of Africa’s trade and development agenda.
The agreement was formalized by AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene and AGRA President Alice Ruhweza, who framed the partnership as a decisive step toward translating the AfCFTA’s legal architecture into practical outcomes for farmers, agribusinesses and consumers.
“The AfCFTA offers Africa a historic opportunity to shift from exporting raw commodities to building regional value chains that create jobs, raise farmer incomes and strengthen food security,” Mene said. “Our partnership with AGRA is about moving from ambition to execution, ensuring that agricultural trade delivers tangible benefits for producers, processors and consumers across the continent.”
A pivotal moment for implementation
The partnership comes at a critical juncture for the African Continental Free Trade Area. Established in 2018, the AfCFTA seeks to create a single continental market for goods and services, promote economic integration among African Union member states and significantly boost intra-African trade.
With 50 countries having already ratified the agreement, the focus is now shifting from legal commitments to practical delivery; particularly in agriculture, a sector that employs a majority of Africans and underpins food security.
The AfCFTA Agri-Trade Action Plan outlines interventions including reducing non-tariff barriers, improving trade facilitation, promoting value addition and mobilizing investment in regional agricultural value chains. The partnership with AGRA is designed to help operationalize these measures on the ground.
For AGRA, an African-led institution that has worked since 2006 to scale agricultural innovations for smallholder farmers across 12 countries, the collaboration aligns closely with its mandate to raise farmer incomes and enhance food security through inclusive agricultural transformation.
“Trade will not transform Africa’s food systems unless farmers and agri-enterprises are able to produce competitively, meet international quality standards, and connect to reliable markets,” Ruhweza said. “This partnership is about making intra-African food trade work in practice — linking policy to delivery so that agriculture becomes a driver of inclusive growth, resilience and shared prosperity.”
A sobering food security landscape
The urgency of the partnership is underscored by the findings of the 2025 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) report, which paints a stark picture of Africa’s food and trade vulnerabilities.
According to the report, moderate and severe food insecurity across Africa has risen sharply over the past decade– by 30% and 32% respectively. In their foreword to the report, Ousmane Badiane of AKADEMIYA2063 and Johan Swinnen of the International Food Policy Research Institute note that undernourishment now affects 20.2% of Africa’s population — a 2.8 percentage point increase since 2019 — leaving 73 million additional people facing moderate or severe food insecurity.
Much of the deterioration occurred between 2019 and 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, trade wars, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, economic slowdown, climate change and political instability. Weak domestic agrifood systems have compounded the shock. Against this backdrop, trade is presented not as a peripheral issue but as central to reversing the trend.
Africa’s trade paradox
Yet, despite its comparative advantage in agriculture, Africa accounts for the smallest share of global agricultural trade. The continent remains heavily dependent on imports — particularly cereals, oils and sugar — even as it exports fruits, nuts and traditional cash crops.
High tariff levels and limited diversification of import suppliers have increased vulnerability to global disruptions. Although intra-African agricultural trade has tripled between 2003 and 2023, Africa remains structurally reliant on food imports from outside the continent.
Regional trade patterns also reveal imbalances. Southern Africa dominates exports of cereals, dairy, meat and processed foods, while North Africa records surpluses in fish, fruits and vegetables. Central, West and East Africa remain net food importers, running persistent trade deficits.
The AATM calls for accelerated implementation of the AfCFTA through streamlined customs procedures, reduced non-tariff barriers and targeted investment to address structural production gaps — precisely the areas the new AfCFTA–AGRA partnership aims to tackle.
Rice and fertilizer: Strategic pressure points
Rice stands out as a strategic vulnerability. Africa has consistently been a net importer of rice, with the commodity accounting for about a quarter of the continent’s cereals trade deficit between 2019 and 2023. Demand is projected to rise rapidly due to population growth, urbanisation and rising incomes, while supply growth is expected to lag because of low yields, inefficient practices and climate pressures.
By 2035, Africa is expected to be the world’s largest rice-importing region. At the same time, fertilizer application rates in Africa are among the lowest globally, contributing to weak crop yields. Although the continent is a net exporter of fertilizer — with major producers in North Africa — most fertilizer consumed domestically is imported.
The report finds a positive correlation between fertilizer use and cereal yields, and a negative relationship between fertilizer consumption and food insecurity. Enhancing intra-African fertilizer trade could therefore strengthen resilience and boost productivity — provided barriers are addressed and supply chains are integrated.
The AATM’s assessment of regional trade agreements suggests that most African regional economic communities are acting as building blocks toward continental integration, particularly under the AfCFTA. However, integration remains uneven.
While tariffs within regional blocs are often low or nonexistent, tariffs and non-tariff barriers between blocs remain high. Infrastructure deficits, fragmented regulatory frameworks and inconsistent enforcement of trade provisions continue to limit the full realization of the AfCFTA’s promise. To unlock its full potential, the report argues, Africa must reduce inter-regional barriers, deepen legal commitments, harmonise standards and invest in trade-enabling infrastructure.
From framework to farmer
It is within this policy and economic landscape that the AfCFTA–AGRA partnership takes on strategic significance. For AfCFTA, the collaboration represents an effort to embed agricultural transformation at the heart of continental trade integration – shifting from commodity exports toward value-added regional supply chains. For AGRA, it provides an avenue to link farm-level productivity and innovation directly to continental markets, ensuring that smallholder farmers, including millions of women involved in value chains such as rice, are not left behind.
Together, the institutions aim to translate high-level trade commitments into practical, farmer-centred action. By aligning trade policy reforms with productivity gains, quality standards and market access, the partnership seeks to ensure that intra-African agricultural trade becomes a driver of inclusive growth rather than a theoretical aspiration.
As the AfCFTA Secretary-General, Mene, put it, the moment demands moving “from ambition to execution”. And as Ruhweza emphasised, success will depend on making trade “work in practice”. With food insecurity rising, import dependence deepening and global supply chains increasingly uncertain, the alliance between the AfCFTA Secretariat and AGRA signals a recognition that Africa’s food future will hinge not only on what it grows — but on how effectively it trades with itself. If implemented effectively, the partnership could mark a decisive step toward transforming the AfCFTA from a legal milestone into a cornerstone of agricultural resilience and shared prosperity across the continent.
