Since the 1980s, exports of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers have become significant foreign exchange earners in Africa. Economic policy reform aimed at reducing State controls has spurred private investment and crop diversification in many countries but there is scope for more expansion for both large and small-to-medium growers. Researchers from the Universities of Coventry and Sussex made a qualitative study encompassing Kenya, The Gambia and the UK. Their report describes trade operations and suggests ways to overcome obstacles to expansion and profitability.

In both Kenya and The Gambia, constraints on trade in fresh horticultural products include poor roads and lack of cold storage at airports. The Gambia, whose horticultural industry is a recent development, also lacks adequate safety and quality control systems. Although control systems in Kenya are good, the process can take time, causing critical delays in shipments.

In the UK, major supermarket retail outlets (the supermarket chain) control over 70 percent of African horticultural produce entering the UK. Their strict insistence on quality and known provenance favour Africa's larger commercial farms supplying pre-packed produce. Demand from supermarkets, though high in volume, is seasonal and limited to a narrow range of products. On the other hand, the small retail outlet and market sector in the UK (the wholesale chain) demands a wider variety of loose produce year-round. This trade offers better prospects for smaller growers, who often operate through family connections. Policies should encourage new farmers to enter the market as well as improve conditions for existing growers. Where marketing networks between growers and exporters are typically informal, problems arise when verbal contracts are not honoured. Protection is also needed from unscrupulous importers who fail to pay for consignments of produce. Other findings of the study include the following observat

• Demand for fresh horticultural products is increasing, raising opportunities for established producers of high-value speciality crops and to new entrants in the lower value (bulk products) marketplace.
• Small farms are often incorporated into export production as 'outgrowers' for large commercial farms.
• Vertical integration (of, for example, production, export, freight and importing activities), is tending to concentrate control of production and trade in the hands of a few major UK supermarket chains.
• Bureaucratic delays, lack of storage at airports, along with a shortage of freight space restrict exporters' operations.
• 'Top-down' power hierarchies in marketing chains impose on producers at the 'bottom end'.

Recommended policy improvements include steps to:

• lift duties on horticultural goods and equipment and deregulate certification procedures at airports
• improve road and sea freight infrastructures and introduce more cold storage facilities at airports
• create agencies in Africa accountable to government to control standards of export products, and regulate inputs
• set codes of conduct between growers, exporters and freight agents, to be monitored by Trade Associations
• set up and train producer groups to support small-scale producers entering the export market
• create independent national bodies to guarantee contracts and payments in Africa/EU transactions.

Source(s):
Barrett, H.R. and Browne, A.W.. Ilbery, B.I, Jackson, G.H., and Binns, J.A 'Prospects for Horticultural exports under trade liberalisation in adjusting African economies', Report to Department for International Development (DFID)(ESCOR) Reference number R6139 (1997)

Funded by: ESCOR (DFID), 1994-1996

id21 Research Highlight: 1998-May-22

Further Information:
H. Barrett
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences
Coventry University
Priory Street
Coventry
CV1 5FB
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1203 838444
Fax: +44 (0) 1203 838447
Contact the contributor: gex037@coventry.ac.uk

School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Coventry University, UK