The EAGC – Africa Grain Summits have grown in leaps and bounds over the
years. The summit is recognised at the highest levels as the only
forum for addressing the challenges and expounding on the opportunities
of grain trade among the private sector in Africa. EAGC was
privileged to host key guests and dignitaries from Kenya and
the EAC region to grace the summit.
At the end of the summit, the delegates agreed on the following key issues
on the summit:
• Indeed Africa is the only frontier for growth and investments globally.
It is no longer an emerging frontier, but the ongoing frontier for
investments in grain trade.
• Africa is endowed with resources and funds, yet very few investments
are accessible.
Delegates noted and confirmed that there are great opportunities for
investments in the grain sector, and each individual must put in effort to
actualise the investments.
• The delegates pushed for a predictable policy environment to support
economic and social investments in the grain sector and to improve on trade
in the region. Policy was singled out as the single highest risk that
investments in the Grain Trade face in Africa.
• Delegates were in agreement that indeed, “we hold the key to the
granaries and the
bread baskets” therefore they agreed to TEAM UP and combine forces by
ASSOCIATING the grain investments together to forge a UNITED FRONT
in addressing the COMMON and CROSS CUTTING issues and challenges that
affect the GRAIN sector in Africa
• It was unanimously agreed that the focus action of positively influencing
policy was pursue to pursue the vision “t o be th e leading voice of the
grain industry in Africa” and the mission “to advocate for an enabling
environment and promote structure
grain t rade for opt imum stakeholder benefits”
The Chief Guest at the summit was the Cabinet Minister East Africa, Trade
and Tourism Mrs. Phyllis Kandie, of the Republic of Kenya, who officially
opened the summit, while Hon. David Wakikona, the State Minister of Trade,
of the Republic of Uganda, was the chief guest at the official
closing ceremony. Other key dignitaries included the Deputy Secretary
General EAC Hon. Jesca Eriyo, the Ambassador of Mexico to Kenya, Luis
Javier Campuzano, the Chief Executive of ASARECA Dr. Fina Opio
and Mr. David Magwaro, Deputy Director, Representing Dr. Wilson Songa,
DELEGATES
The summit attracted over 190 top level delegates from the Private Sector
including grain Traders, Millers and Farmers, Top Government
Representatives and officials, bilateral agencies including EAC and COMESA,
Research and Academia, Development Partners such as USAID, SIDA, CTA and
AGRA, Financial Institutions including local commercial banks and
the World Bank.
GEOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION
We are pleased to inform you that over 20 African Countries and other
countries across the globe participated in the summit. Some of this
countries included Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan,
Ethiopia, Somalia, Togo, Mali, Botswana, Senegal, Cote d’voire, Ghana,
Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana, the Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Netherlands,
Norway, and the USA.
Geographical Representation of the Delegates at the 5th Africa Grain Trade
Summit – October 2013
SPEAKERS
One of the overriding goals of the grain summits is to ensure and engage
with high quality speakers at the summit. A very intense selection process
was done to ensure that only the top quality team of speakers are
appointed. This year, we received overwhelming interest and eventually
selected a very well structured team of over 30 multi-sectoral experts to
speak at the summit sessions. EAGC also engaged a team of professional
experts to moderate and guide the sessions, hence the great success of the
summit. We thank all our speakers for the great work.
Speaker during the “Grain Talk” session at the Summit.
SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
The summit also interested a myriad of partners who included the Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA), the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), The USAID East Africa Trade Hub
(formerly known as USAID COMPETE), the Technical Centre for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the Agribusiness Initiative Trust (ABI)
Uganda, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Agriculture (AGRA),
Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central
Africa (ASARECA) and the USAID Ethiopia Agricultural Markets Development
Project
The accomplishment and achievements of the summit, were made possible by
the Key sponsors who included USAID – East Africa Trade Hub, the CARANA
Corporation, Seaboard Overseas and Trading group, the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), Bunge East Africa Limited, Capital Reef Kenya Limited,
the East Africa Breweries Limited, The East Africa Exchange (EAX), Cimbria
East Africa, Intertek Commodities Ltd, Lesiolo Grain Handlers Limited,
Cereal Growers Association, Mama Millers Ltd, Post Harvest Services Limited
and
Farm Concern International.
Networking.
The Summit provided great networking opportunities during the welcome
reception and the gala dinner, which are key aspects of the Summit.
.