Page 42 - EXPORT GUIDE 2 AFRICA

Why has Africa become

A NET FOOD IMPORTER?

That Africa has become a net importer of The weak growth in food production arises But for cash-strapped countries (e.g. Burun-
food and of agricultural products, despite its from various constraints including those di, Central African Republic, Eritrea),
vast agricultural potential, is puzzling. Using linked directly to agricultural productivity. persistent food import becomes a problem
data mainly for the period 1960-2007, this Data and evidence from literature highlight when the high and rising food import bills
report seeks to explain Africa’s food-trade that technical, infrastructural and institu- take money away from other important
de cit since the mid-1970s. The core nding tional constraints share the blame. Likewise, development agendas without resolving
is that population growth, low and stagnat- distortions arising from both internal and food insecurity. The problem is even bigger
ing agricultural productivity, policy distor- external economic and agricultural policies for countries where exports rely mainly on
tions,weak institutions and poor infrastruc- (especially the protection and subsidies agriculture but the revenues from tradition-
ture are the main reasons. from developed countries and taxation on al exports such as cocoa, co ee and spices
A typology of African countries based on food production within Africa) have a ect- are less certain and at the mercy of volatile
data between 2000 and 2005 reveals that ed food productivity, production and trade international market prices. FAO data show
the state of food import dependency is in Africa. However, the examples of a few that in 2007, only about one-third (19 out of
di erent across the ontinent and varies successful practices in African agriculture 53) of African countries had enough agricul-
according to countries’ levels of income. and the fact that the domestic food produc- tural export revenue to pay for their food
Although the few and relatively rich tion has managed to keep up with popula- import bills, andthe rest had to draw money
countries in Africa had the highest net food tion growth inspire optimism that the future from other resources or wait for food
imports per capita (USD 185 per year in real is not all dark. There is a lot of roomfor donations to ensure a stable food supply. In
terms), they had ample means to pay for improvement for agricultural productivity in countries like Burundi, Cap Verde, Comoros,
their food import bills using revenue from these low-income countries to the point at Djibouti, Eritrea, Gambia, Sao Tome and
non-agricultural sources. Conversely, the which production growth outpaces the Principe and Somalia, the total export
majority of the Africa’s low-income growth of population and per capita revenues of total merchandise (agriculture
countries (mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa), consumption. and non-agriculture) were far short of
where twothird of its population lives, had agricultural (including food) import bills.
been net food importers; they imported far Despite its vast agricultural potential, Africa Detailed investigation of the issue of food
less food per capita (USD 17 per year) but as a continent has remained a net importer insecurity in Africa has already been the
had di culty covering their food imports of agricultural products in the last three object of other FAO reports and is not the
bills, as their export revenues were limited. decades. In 1980, Africa had an almost focus of the present.1 However, the speci c
Overall, between 1980 and 2007, Africa’s balanced agricultural trade when both concern over the ability of some African
total net food imports in real term grew at agricultural exports and imports were at countries to a ord increasingly costly food
3.4 percent per year, but this growth was about USD 14 billion, but by 2007 its agricul- imports to improve food security has
mostly fuelled by population growth (2.6 tural imports exceeded agricultural exports motivated the search for answers on why
percent per year); the increase in per capita by about USD 22 billion (FAOSTAT, 2011). For Africa has become a net food importer.
food import was only about 0.8 percent per food trade in particular, Africa food trade
year. Food consumption on per capita basis de cit had started at an earlier time POPULATION SIZE, STRUCTURE & GROWTH
grew only at about 1 percent per year, while (mid-1970’s) and ever since it has grown fast In the last ve decades, Africa has always
food production grew at an even smaller & exceeded USD 13 billion in 2005 . been the continent with the highest popu-
rate of less than 0.1 percent per year. lation growth rate, which suggests that
The slow growth of food consumption and The increase in food imports since the Africa’s growing population is one of the
imports per capita is consistent with the mid-1970s has been particularly striking for drivers of its food import increase. In 2007,
weak economic growth and unchanged basic foodstu s such as dairy products, Africa’s population growth rate was at 2.34
dietary pattern in the continent. Food edible oils and fats, meat and meat percent, which was nearly the double of the
import share, regardless of income levels, is products, sugar and especially cereals, worlds’ population growth rate The popula-
relatively small and represents less than 5 implying that food import has been increas- tion structure in Figure 9 shows that about
percent of per capita income (GDP per ingly important in ensuring food security 40 percent of the African population is
capita). Because the share of food expense under the age of 15. Africa’s young and
in household income isgenerally high in Food import dependency is viewed di er- growing population poses a serious
Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, that ently depending on each individual challenge to food security, implying that in
the share of food imports over GDP is small country’s ability to pay its food import bill. areas where local production is low, food
implies that domestic production has For some oil or mineralrich countries (e.g. will have to be imported to satisfy demand.
largely contributed to feeding Africa’s popu- Botswana, Libya) or for some of the relative- The growing number of food outlets includ-
lation. ly more industrialized countries (e.g. Mauri- ing the so-called ‘supermarket revolution’ in
Still, domestic food production has tius), importing some types of food some African cities has considerably
remained relatively low and increased only products (like fruits and vegetables) seems increased African urban consumers’ access
by 2.7 percent per year, just barely above more bene cial than producing these to food. Growing tourism in many countries
population growth rate. This implies that products at home, especially since they (e.g. Kenya, Mauritius, and Tanzania) may
any increase in per capita consumption had have enough foreign currency reserves to have had signi cant impacts on the food
to be met by an increase in imports. pay for the food import bills. related sectors.