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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.
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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.