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Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); CPA, The Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM) is an annual flagship publication of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and AKADEMIYA2063. This seventh edition provides an overview of short- and long-term trends and drivers behind Africa’s global trade, intra-African trade, and trade within Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs), with a focus on the nexus of trade and climate change. The six chapters of this 2024 AATM report are as follows. This first chapter offers an overview of the food security concerns in African countries in the wake of the global crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, and the global resurgence of protectionist policies. It examines trade through a food security lens, including availability, utilization, accessibility, and stability of food supplies, as well as the effects of tariffs, nontariff measures (NTMs), and deep trade agreements on food security in Africa. Special attention is paid to fertilizers, given the importance of these inputs for agricultural productivity and food security. As a result of Africa’s heavy dependence on fertilizer imports, farmers, and particularly smallholders, were severely challenged in the recent crisis when spikes in international fertilizer prices were compounded by high rates of domestic inflation.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); CPA, The literature on the complex relationship between trade and climate change is rich. While trade can affect climate change through dirty production techniques or carbon emissions due to transport (Brenton and Chemutai 2021), climate change can affect trade through its effect on agricultural productivity (Ben Zaied and Cheikh 2015; Chandio et al. 2020), production, and thus countries’ specialization (Gouel and Laborde 2021), primarily due to high temperatures and water stress (Hamududu and Ngoma 2020). As Africa is a net importer of agricultural products, the consequence is that climate change will likely affect food security in the medium and long term. Against this background, the objective of this chapter is twofold. First, we examine the extent to which African countries are exposed to climate change relative to other regions of the world. Second, we show how Africa’s comparative advantages can be altered with rising temperatures and water stress. Our main findings show that climate change effects in Africa are more pronounced than in other regions, reflected in the increase in extreme weather events associated with rising temperatures and greater variability in precipitation. These developments are likely to increase the number of food insecure people. Furthermore, we identify how climate change can affect African countries’ specialization based on products’ sensitivity to changes in temperature and their dependence on water. We show that several crops (such as leguminous vegetables, edible nuts and coconuts, groundnuts, oilseeds, and oleaginous fruits) will be affected by climate change. Other crops’ production may be less affected, but their future expansion may be limited by climate change–related factors.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); CPA, The 2024 AATM investigates critical issues related to African agricultural trade. As in previous editions of the report, we have developed a database that corrects discrepancies in trade flow values, as reported by importing and exporting countries, as the basis for analyzing Africa’s international, domestic, and regional economic community (REC) trade. Given the pressing need to address climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions, this year’s AATM takes an in-depth look at the relationship between climate change, water use, and emissions and African agricultural trade.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); CPA, The patterns of Africa’s participation in fruit and vegetable value chains (FVVCs) clearly reflect the continent’s colonial past. The restructuring of African exports around a few commodities to serve European markets during the colonial period largely undermined the farming of local food crops, including indigenous fruits and vegetables. Postcolonial governments focused on cash crops as the main source of foreign exchange earnings, reinforcing the status quo. However, the mid-1980s witnessed a major shift in global demand away from traditional cash crops and toward high-value products, including fruits and vegetables. This shift was an opportunity for developing countries, including those in Africa, to diversify their exports and reduce their vulnerability to global commodity price fluctuations. Participation in FVVCs can also have positive impacts on employment creation, income mobility, and poverty reduction. Yet, Africa’s participation in FVVCs is undermined by a number of structural challenges, some of which are typical of FVVCs, and some related to long-standing issues facing African economies in general, and the agriculture sector in particular.

PR, IFPRI2; ReSAKSS; AGRODEP; Africa Regional Integration and the AfCFTA; CRP2, Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy, The 2023 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor, a flagship publication of AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Food Policy Research Institute, provides an overview of trade in agriculture in Africa, including analysis of short- and long-term trends and drivers behind Africa’s global trade, intra-African trade, and trade within Africa’s regional economic communities. The 2023 report highlights the growing treat of climate change to trade; looks closely at the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on food security and poverty; draws on the report’s robust trade database to analyze African agrifood trade and nutrition; examines the types of trade agreements that successfully boost trade, and the implications for the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement; and includes focused chapters on the competitiveness of cotton value chains in Africa and world trade and on trade integration in Economic Community of Central African States.

PR, IFPRI2; ReSAKSS; AGRODEP; Africa Regional Integration and the AfCFTA; CRP2, Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy, This is the sixth Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor (AATM), an annual flagship publication of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and AKADEMIYA2063. The AATM provides an overview of trade in agriculture in Africa, including analysis of short- and long-term trends and drivers behind Africa’s global trade, intra-African trade, and trade within Africa’s regional economic communities. The AATM is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The six chapters of this 2023 AATM report are as follows.

PR, IFPRI2; ReSAKSS; AGRODEP; Africa Regional Integration and the AfCFTA; CRP2, Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy, Against the background of worldwide trade disruptions and climate change impacts, the 2023 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor explores recent trends and patterns in Africa’s global and regional agricultural trade. Like the preceding editions, the report uses a database that corrects for discrepancies in trade flow values as reported by importing and exporting countries. This section summarizes the key findings discussed in the report’s six chapters and related policy implications for successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement.

PR, IFPRI2; ReSAKSS; AGRODEP; Africa Regional Integration and the AfCFTA; CRP2, Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy, One of the main features of today’s global trade system is the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs). Over the past four decades, the number of agreements increased from just 15 in 1980 to 583 in 2023 (WTO 2023). Most of the 583 agreements are free trade agreements (FTAs) (317), followed by economic integration agreements (190), partial scope agreements (27), and customs unions (18). The proliferation of RTAs in recent years has been coupled with broader and deeper coverage under these agreements. Broader coverage increasingly includes more policy areas that may be trade-related (tariffs and nontariff measures) or non trade-related (behind-the-border policies, intellectual property rights, movement of capital and people, competition policy, and others). In this regard, the scope of RTAs has been expanded by WTO members and signatories of RTAs from just 8 policy areas in the 1950s to 17 policy areas today. Deeper agreements include an increasing number of commitments within each policy area (Fernandes et al. 2021). They are also increasingly accompanied by legal requirements, such as stronger transparency and enforcement mechanisms (Abman et al. 2021, Fernandes et al. 2021). Thus, RTAs are increasingly being converted to deep trade agreements.

PR, IFPRI2; ReSAKSS; AGRODEP; Africa Regional Integration and the AfCFTA; CRP2, Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI); Food and Nutrition Policy, Cotton production and trade have a long history and important role in Africa, dating back centuries before the colonial period. While the sector saw several developments in the post colonial period, cotton trade remained primarily in unprocessed cotton because of several structural challenges affecting its production. Moreover, African exports of cotton have decreased in recent years from a total annual average of US$55 billion1 in the 2006–2010 period to $48 billion in the 2017–2021 period. At the same time, cotton imports increased by 37 percent, up from $37 billion to $51 billion, making Africa a net importer in the later period. At the value chain level, unprocessed cotton products have the lion’s share in the export market, accounting for about 12 percent of global exports of raw cotton during the 2017–2021 period. Africa’s semi-processed and processed cotton product exports account for 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, for the same period. In addition, African imports of processed cotton increased as a share of world cotton trade (from 3 percent to 4 percent) over the two periods.