As the 11th African Economic Conference kicks off in Abuja, Nigeria, a study from Meredith Hanlon Department of Economics, Environmental Science and Biology, Alleghey College USA have expressed skepticism regarding African agricultural sectors ability to support the regions agro-industy strategy
South African producers are in full support of planned protest marches by Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU)
Brexit, embargos on Russia and global terrorism have meant that flower and the plant worlds have having to grow in unconventional ways
Dr Maianne Altmann of CO CONCEPT, has written about the trends of the flower and plant sector on behalf of Messe Essen for IPM ESSEN 2017. In the report, she discusses worldwide demand, growth potential, and how political instabilities affect the market and the future of the flower and plant worlds.
The report states that worldwide demand is concentrated in Europe, China, Japan and the USA. Most export activity, 70 per cent in fact, takes place within the European Union with the Netherlands being the number one hub for trade within the EU.
Kenya is the first in terms of country of origin for flowers, followed by Ethiopia, Ecudor and Columber. British buyers do often favour the African continent, focusing their efforts on Kenya, SOuth AFrican and Morocco, but also Columbia, Turkey and Israel. The Kenya Flower Council are concerned that trade may become complicated when Britain officially leaves the European Union, especially as Kenya made a breakthrough in the summer of 2016 to implement essential trade facilitation measures with the EU.
Like their Asian counterparts, some exporting countries are focusing efforts on Russia as trade embargos are being lifted, especially as Russia are the fifth largest flower importer in the world. More on the Asian perspective of this report can be read here on our sister publication, Far Eastern Agriculture.
The full report can be viewed here.
Nigerias Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, PIND and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale are to support the event, running 23- 25 November 2016 in Lagos Nigeria
At the COP22 Climate talks in Marrakech, the Moroccan government has launched the Adaptation of African Agriculture initiative, designed to help the African agricultural sector to rise to the challenge of climate change, as well as improve water management across the continent
