Produce growers form new network for East and Southern Africa

Dakar - A regional network for horticultural associations will be launched in at the end of March. The network is part of the efforts being made in the region to ensure that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) meant to replace the current trading regime with the EU are signed by the end of December 2007. The initiative brings together country representatives from Southern, Central and East African states, which are seeking collaboration in promoting competitiveness in the export markets through lobbying and sharing information and expertise.

The network is dubbed the Horticultural Council for Southern, Eastern and Central Africa (HC-SECA). Members countries are Burundi, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia. All the countries in the network, with the exception of Kenya and Zimbabwe, are classified as Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and can therefore can continue trading with the EU under the Everything But Arms initiative if no agreement is reached with the EU by the end of the year. These countries may therefore not see much need for urgency to sign the EPAs. This makes things awkward for a country like Kenya because under current WTO dispensation, trade concessions are discussed between regions, which offer bigger markets and economies of scale.

The regional horticultural council concept was conceived in June 2005 in Harare, Zimbabwe during an EPAs workshop. National horticultural associations and other key stakeholders agreed to create a platform to harmonise the needs of individual countries that are at different levels of development and articulate them within a multi-nation setup. Among the benefits expected to accrue from the initiative is the sharing of technical information and expertise, which some of the associations are already doing informally.

Other identified areas of collaboration are trade opportunities, marketing strategies, good agricultural practices, policy reforms and human resources.Though competing against one another in the international markets, the subscribing countries recognise that competition from producers outside the sub-region is a critical challenge requiring a common approach. Within the geographical boundaries of the involved countries, horticulture exports have more than doubled over the past 25 years, with the industry accounting for 18 per cent of agricultural sales.

Publication date: March 28 2007
Author: Chido Makunike
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