As international leaders collect in Addis Ababa on the thirty ninth African Union Summit to set and align priorities in key areas, the headlines and discussions will probably concentrate on geopolitics, safety, and local weather. However beneath these pressing themes lies a quieter, transformative alternative: commerce. If approached with ambition and steadiness, commerce can change into one of the highly effective levers for a brand new period of collaboration between Africa and Germany and, ultimately, throughout your complete Africa-Europe partnership.
At a time when the European Union is negotiating wide-ranging commerce agreements with Mercosur and India, the absence of a equally daring, future-oriented framework with Africa is hanging. Africa is house to the world’s youngest inhabitants, among the fastest-growing markets, holds huge deposits of essential minerals, possesses monumental agricultural potential, and has a booming agri-tech ecosystem. But it stays largely locked right into a sample of exporting uncooked commodities and importing processed meals and inputs. This imbalance, which exacerbates water and meals insecurity, isn’t inevitable. It’s an final result that may be modified.
And the stakes are excessive. Africa’s agricultural exports have tripled over the previous twenty years to US$90 billion in 2023, whereas imports have grown even sooner, reaching US$118 billion in 2023, thus leaving the continent a internet meals importer and extremely susceptible to international value shocks. And whereas intra-African agricultural commerce greater than tripled to US$20 billion between 2003 and 2023, it nonetheless accounts for lower than one-fifth of whole commerce, far under ranges seen in Europe or Asia.
A forward-looking Africa–Germany commerce partnership that’s nested inside a broader Africa-EU imaginative and prescient might assist shut these gaps. Whereas commerce between Africa and Germany has remained modest up to now, the complementarities are clear: Africa’s rising meals markets and Germany’s curiosity in sustainable, dependable worth chains. This can require a deliberate shift from a donor-recipient mindset to a co-investment mannequin that builds productive capability, strengthens regional markets, and aligns commerce with meals safety, local weather objectives, and job creation amongst member states in each unions. When paired with investments in rural infrastructure, social safety, equitable land tenure, training, and processing capacities, commerce can considerably bolster meals safety and drive the transformation of agrifood techniques and facilitate the implementation of CAADP (Complete Africa Agriculture Growth Programme). That is essential, as Africa south of the Sahara continues to document the very best starvation ranges globally.
The African Continental Free Commerce Space (AfCFTA) is the muse for such a shift. With 55 member states, of which 50 have signed ratifications, it’s already the biggest free commerce space on this planet by membership. Its promise is immense: eradicating tariffs and non-tariff boundaries, harmonising requirements, and stimulating regional worth chains that make African producers extra aggressive at house and overseas. However its implementation should be accelerated. Too few international locations are buying and selling underneath AfCFTA preferences, and bottlenecks in infrastructure, customs procedures, and sanitary and phytosanitary techniques proceed to carry again cross-border commerce. The institutional capability of regional financial communities and the AfCFTA Secretariat additionally want sustained help in order that reforms are coordinated, monitored, and enforced successfully.
Strengthening AfCFTA isn’t solely in Africa’s curiosity. A extra built-in African market would make Africa a stronger, extra dependable buying and selling companion for Germany and Europe. It could additionally create the dimensions and predictability that European traders and producers want to have interaction extra deeply in African worth chains.
The examples are already there. In West Africa, the ECOWAS “Milk Offensive” reveals how coordinated regional coverage, blended finance, and funding in chilly chains and requirements can stimulate demand for superior applied sciences and scale back dependence on imported milk powder whereas elevating incomes for pastoralists and processors. In East Africa, focused upgrades of border laboratories have slashed clearance instances for meals imports and exports, defending meals safety whereas lowering non-tariff boundaries. In Uganda, sustained public–personal funding within the espresso sector, mixed with early motion on traceability and sustainability requirements, has boosted export worth and deepened mutually useful commerce with Europe.
A strong illustration of Africa–Europe collaboration is the AgriBridge Community, an African–German “community of networks” connecting analysis establishments, private-sector actors, farmer organisations, and civil society. By creating structured areas for dialogue, AgriBridge fosters mutual understanding and belief, that are important for enduring partnerships and knowledgeable alternate with policymakers.
Its latest coverage be aware on commerce supplies clear, actionable suggestions to strengthen agricultural worth chains, speed up AfCFTA implementation, develop inclusive financing, and help ladies, youth, and SMEs, demonstrating how evidence-based, multi-stakeholder collaboration can ship tangible commerce outcomes.
These experiences level to a transparent agenda for motion.
First, Africa and Germany ought to scale up partnership-based investments that prioritise native worth addition. This implies supporting agro-processing zones, renewable vitality for agribusiness, climate-smart applied sciences, and abilities improvement. Blended finance can de-risk early-stage investments and crowd in long-term, affected person funding. Crucially, all such partnerships should adhere to sturdy environmental and social safeguards, guaranteeing that commerce contributes to the proper to meals, first rate work, and inexperienced progress.
Third, any deeper Africa-Europe commerce agenda should be inclusive by design. Smallholder farmers, ladies, youth, and small and medium-sized enterprises are the spine of Africa’s agrifood financial system, but they’re usually excluded from formal commerce alternatives. Increasing entry to inexpensive finance, applied sciences, tailor-made abilities improvement, and digital instruments will help these teams take part extra absolutely in regional and worldwide worth chains. For Germany, this implies aligning catalytic improvement finance, private-sector engagement, and technical cooperation to intentionally prioritise those that are most frequently left behind. On this context, the brand new reform plan of the German Ministry for Financial Cooperation and Growth presents a chance, with its emphasis on financial collaboration. Sustainable financial improvement can kind the muse for thriving economies, eradicating poverty, creating much-needed employment alternatives, and guaranteeing long-term meals and vitamin safety. For this to occur, financial cooperation should not be pushed solely by export or funding pursuits however slightly be accompanied by strong company due diligence obligations and be firmly anchored within the progressive realisation of the human proper to enough meals.
Lastly, Europe should assume larger. The EU’s negotiations with Mercosur and India reveal that European international locations are prepared to pursue complete commerce frameworks that transcend tariffs to cowl requirements, providers, funding, innovation, and sustainability. Africa deserves a equally formidable method that recognises the AfCFTA because the continental anchor and builds towards a wide-ranging Africa-EU commerce partnership over time.
The AU Summit is the proper second to set this imaginative and prescient in movement. Leaders on either side ought to decide to a brand new commerce narrative with Africa not as a supply of uncooked supplies however as a companion in worth creation, not as a recipient of support however as a co-investor in shared progress and prosperity.
From Addis to Berlin, the message needs to be clear: the way forward for Africa-Europe relations is witnessing a renewed momentum. What is required now’s the political will to grab it.
