A Cabanga Africa Publication
Africa Thinks Here
On-the-ground business intelligence in South Africa & Eswatini, since July 2019.
Section
A lodge kitchen in the Okavango or the Zambezi valley can source its vegetables from two places: a supplier a few hours away by road, or an importer whose stock crosses a border and a customs post first. Most regional hospitality operators still default to the second...
A smallholder in one SADC member state and a commercial grower two borders away can now, in principle, plant seed released under the same regional certification pathway and manage the same fall armyworm outbreak using the same approved regional strategy. In practice,...
Drought and flood, not war, are the disasters that most often trigger humanitarian response across Southern Africa, and both hit agriculture first. That makes it notable that the agreement Southern African Development Community heads of state and government adopted at...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has some of the most extensive arable land and freshwater resources on the continent, and it imports a meaningful share of its staple food. That gap between agricultural endowment and food-import dependence is the single most...
A crate of fresh produce held at a SADC border post for inspection loses value with every hour it sits there in a way a container of manufactured goods does not. That asymmetry is why non-tariff barriers, which SADC's own institutional record now estimates carry...
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, early settlers who decided to settle in the lands of Israel faced a huge challenge: how to farm in conditions of sweltering heat and minimal rainfall. The land was catastrophically barren, but the desire to make this area...
A maize processor in Zambia or a horticulture exporter in Zimbabwe operates on thin, seasonal margins where working capital tied up for even a few extra weeks can determine whether a harvest reaches market before it spoils or loses value. For agricultural producers...
Sanctions, or talk of sanctions, toward Russia create opportunities for the African Agricultural Economy, especially fertilizer production amongst other things. Throwing threats and executing them are two different things, and what lies between must be an impact...
All war affects geopolitics and has a direct impact on global economics by reshaping demand and supply. From an international trade perspective, the current Russia-Ukraine dispute has created opportunity for largest African agricultural commodity exporters like South...