Growing population makes Africa a key market for Canadian crops

SASKATOON — Cereals Canada is eyeing up Africa as a potential growth market.

Canada already sells a lot of durum to Algeria and Morocco and wheat to Nigeria and Ghana.

However, there is room for more wheat sales in sub-Saharan Africa, said Leif Carlson, vice-president of markets and trade with Cereals Canada.

“We do see Africa as an opportunity,” he said.

“It’s one we’re already participating in, but I think there’s more to do.”

Wheat is already a staple food ingredient in many countries, so the best way to grow consumption is through population growth, and Southeast Asia and Africa are the two regions of the world where that is occurring at the highest rate.

Africa’s population is expected to reach four billion by 2100, up from 1.35 billion today, according to OurWorldinData.org.

It will be home to 38 per cent of the global population by 2100, up from 18 per cent today.

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Growth in income levels and increased urbanization will also drive wheat consumption in the region, said Carlson.

Nigeria already consumes about 800,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat per year, and Ghana another 375,000 tonnes.

Cereals Canada believes Mozambique, Kenya and Cameroon are three markets with good growth potential. Mozambique’s annual purchases have already topped 200,000 tonnes in some years.

Cereals Canada has a partnership with the African Milling School which allows the organization to conduct its technical programming in Kenya.

“People from Africa can meet our team there instead of coming to Canada,” said Carlson.

Canadian wheat has found success as a blending wheat in Nigeria, where loaf style breads are popular.

The blending of high-quality Canadian wheat with cheaper Black Sea wheat keeps the bread loaves affordable.

It can also be blended with hard wheat to make noodles and pasta.

Canadian wheat is also well suited for making instant noodles, which are gaining popularity in Africa due to urbanization.

However, regulations and non-tariff barriers can be an issue in African markets, he said.

That is a particularly poignant problem for the U.S. corn and soybean sectors.

The National Corn Growers Association and 12 other national groups are encouraging U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration to remove barriers to biotech products in Africa.

They want U.S. Congress to extend and modernize the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is authorized through Dec. 31, 2026.

The groups recently sent a letter to deputy U.S. trade representative Jeffrey Goettman asking him to modernize the act.

“The continent of Africa holds significant opportunity for U.S. agricultural exports, but nontariff barriers on biotechnology must be addressed to access these markets,” they stated in the letter.

The act is supposed to provide duty-free access to eligible countries in Africa that have made meaningful progress to eliminate barriers to trade.

“Unfortunately, the vast majority of countries in Africa have not adopted policies that facilitate trade in agricultural biotechnology products, which closes off these markets to American farmers who need to diversify and unlock new markets around the globe,” stated the letter.

Ninety-four per cent of U.S. corn production is genetically modified.

Some countries in Africa have banned any importation of agricultural biotechnology, while others have regulatory systems that delay or prevent the sale of U.S. biotech crops.

Demand for animal feed is on the rise in Africa due to population growth and an expanding middle class that wants to eat meat.

The groups want U.S. trade officials to encourage AGOA recipients to align with U.S. policies on agricultural biotechnology.

They noted that other countries have adopted streamlined approvals of agricultural biotechnology products as part of Trump’s new Agreements on Reciprocal Trade.

But none of those new style agreements have been announced with African countries.

That could be changing soon.

Julie Callahan, chief agricultural negotiator with the U.S. Trade Representative, recently stated that Sub-Saharan Africa is going to be the next target market for her office because of the region’s enormous potential and “truly egregious trade barriers.”