The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) have commenced quality guideline training of bee farmers across the country. Dr Gideon Mshelbwala, the Director, Veterinary and Pest Control Services in the ministry, made the statement on Thursday in Goshen, Nasarawa State.He said the training was aimed at enabling Nigeria meet European Union requirements for export of honey. He added that the training would also help to build the capacity of bee farmers on modern bee keeping practices for them to comply with international standards in honey production.

Fruit producers and exporters from Cameroon, the Ivory Coast and Ghana have officially launched AFRUIBANA, an association that will allow fruit producers on the continent to combine their efforts with a view to having their voices heard better in international trade. During a visit to Brussels, Cameroon Trade Minister, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, launched the association to European institutions on Wednesday, July 19. As representative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) during the various Councils of Ministers addressing the banana industry, the minister was lauded for this initiative, which is on a mission to defend the interests of African fruit farming.

The further you travel from Brussels, the likelier people are to see Brexit as an opportunity. I’m in Kampala, discussing post-EU commercial prospects with business and political leaders from across East Africa. While not everyone here started as a Leaver, there is now a widespread hope that Brexit will lead to more open trade arrangements, above all in farming, which employs two thirds of Africa’s workforce. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy treats Africa as an economic colony. Brussels applies tariffs to tomato sauce, but not to tomatoes; to chocolate, but not to cocoa beans; to roasted coffee, but not to green coffee.

For a developing country exporter, for example, of fresh bananas from the Philippines seeking market access to the EU, it is necessary to comply with at least seven categories of sustainability standards, from food safety controls to labelling standards, with each category of compliance carrying with it a range of production guidelines and documentation – a somewhat daunting prospect for a semi-literate farming producer in rural Mindanao. As such, one of the major contemporary challenges facing developing country firms, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) today, is the ever-increasing number of regulations and sustainability standards they are required to conform to if they are to integrate into global value chains (GVCs).

Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and chief executive officer of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) Rodinald Soomer have signed a grant agreement aimed at enhancing export capacity and value-added in the island’s spices sector. The immediate beneficiary company, West India Spices, has been awarded a grant of US$244,000. The grant, according to Soomer, will help to increase drying and grinding capacity based on the use of renewable power sources that will facilitate all weather production of value-added nutmeg-based products for export. “It is expected that the project will have the impact of increasing West India Spices’ purchases of raw inputs for producing essential oils on average by 10 percent per year until 2025,” Sommer said at the signing ceremony.

The costs of ingredients of poultry feed highly depend on the country’s production. As a result these costs highly determine the competitive power of the national poultry chains in East Africa. This is concluded in a study conducted by WLR in collaboration with the Netherlands Africa Business Council (NABC). The study shows how poultry chains in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania increasingly depend on developments in their neighbouring countries. The results of the project ‘Poultry Development in Africa, a regional perspective’ have been presented in the Africa Event of the Dutch Poultry Centre. Feed prices are lowest in the countries that are able to locally produce the main feed ingredients (mainly maize).

Nigeria and other ECOWAS countries will benefit from the 50 million-euro European Union (EU) fund set up to ensure sustainable fisheries development and marine security, an EU official says. Mrs Stefania Marrone, Head of Regional Cooperation Section in the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday. Marrone spoke on the sidelines of the meeting on “Regional Policy Process for the Development of ECOWAS Fisheries and Aquaculture Regional Policy and Strategy Frame Work of ECOWAP’’. She said that the programme would be implemented in various West African countries within a six-year period

Intraregional seed trade is set for a boost following the introduction of seed labels and certificates to be utilized by seed companies for large consignment crossing the borders. The move is intended to spur regional trade through improved seed varieties across the region. The COMESA Seed Labels and Certificates will be used by member States to identity seeds in the market that meets the COMESA Seed Trade Harmonization Regulations of 2014. This development is line with the COMESA Seed Harmonization and Implementation Plan (COMSHIP) that provides a framework for the 19 COMESA Member States to trade, facilitate seed industry and support local seed companies.

Samoa's minister of agriculture, La'aulialemalietoa Leuatea Polata'ivao Schmidt, confirmed in Parliament that negotiations with the World Bank to fund the project should be finalised in the near future. The minister said construction of the abattoir at Nu'u should start before the end of the year, with $US1.2 million from the World Bank allocated for the project. The government said the new abattoir would improve meat hygiene for domestic consumption and ultimately satisfy international regulations. The minister said the facility would take over the processing of all meat before it can be sold commercially and any products not processed through the abattoir will be banned from the commercial market.

Kenya is likely to lose her European Union (EU) market share of French beans to Morocco and Guatemala due to high cost of production, exporters have warned. Favoured by efficient production factors, the two countries are said to have grown their market share almost edging out Kenya, a situation that might be disastrous to local farmers. Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) new CEO Hosea Machuki said Kenya is grappling with high production and freight cost coupled with overpricing despite producing high quality beans. Morocco, he said, though produces mainly bobby beans that are considered of lower value as compared to Kenyan products that are usually premium class has expanded her market share in EU owing to aggressive marketing and its proximity.