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Constance Jackson, Associate Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, is interviewed by Ghana’s TV3 News as U.S. agricultural attaché to Ghana, Ali Abdi (middle), looks on.

From March 10–14, 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) will conduct an Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission to the West and Central Africa Region. Participant countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

The main objective of this mission is to promote U.S.–Africa agribusiness cooperation, trade, and investment. The West and Central Africa region mission will focus on the following sectors: dry grocery products, horticulture, food processing, beer and spirits, seafood, livestock genetics, and production inputs. Nineteen American companies have registered to participate in this mission.

With the passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the opportunities for American agribusinesses looking to enter or expand their presence in Africa are increasing. AGOA has helped to boost two-way trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa by 17 percent from 2005 to 2006, reaching almost $71.3 billion, with growth both in U.S. exports to and U.S. imports from the region. Total U.S. imports from Africa increased to $59.2 billion, with U.S. exports to Africa increasing to $12.1 billion.

Constance Jackson, Associate Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service, at the opening plenary on March 10, 2008, of USDA's West and Central Africa Agribusiness Trade and Investment Mission in Accra, Ghana, with Ghanaian Agriculture Minister Ernest Debrah next to her.

U.S. exports to West and Central Africa currently consist mostly of bulk and intermediate agricultural commodities. However, substantial opportunities exist for export growth in planting seeds, animal and plant genetics, seafood, and several other consumer-oriented food products, including some frozen items for the food service sector.

In 2006, the U.S. Government (USG) made a five-year commitment of nearly $400 million for trade-capacity building activities in sub-Saharan Africa. Included in this is the USG launched implementation of the five-year, $200-million African Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI), which is designed to help improve the competitiveness of sub-Saharan African enterprises. Of this, USDA/FAS will receive $11 million over five years to implement agriculture-related trade capacity building activities under AGCI. In addition to these financial commitments, between 2005-2006 the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed compacts with 4 Sub-Saharan Africa countries with expected funding totaling $1.45 billion over 5 years.