Afcfta Offers Pathway To Greater Food Security

Mold, in a presentation on the link between trade and food security to delegates at a side event of the 2025 ECA Conference of Ministers, cited ECA's forthcoming report, Improving Food Security in Eastern Africa Through Greater Intra-Regional Trade -A Review of the Issues. It argues that there is a pathway to greater food security through the concept of collective regional food security.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, Africa accounted for 41 of the world's undernourished population in 2023, up from 24 in 2000.

And its food import bill is large, putting scarce foreign exchange reserves under pressure. In 2023, Africa spent more than 83bn importing foodstuffs.

Yet, we should not be beguiled by aggregate figures, argued Mold. "It is the net performance that ultimately counts, and Africa is a significant food exporter. Food exports to outside the continent reached nearly 62bn in 2023.

Largely unnoticed, Africa's food trade deficit improved markedly in 2023, to 22bn, a decline of 25bn in a single year.