

Regional Trade
From Import Dependence to Regional Self-Sufficiency

Regional trade is the most underused lever Africa has for feeding itself, and for reclaiming the billions it spends importing what the continent already grows.
Baobab Impact mapped the agro-commodity trade flows that connect Africa's producing regions to one another and to global markets, looking at where the continent's food, feed, and cash crops actually move, what they cost to move, and how much of the value generated stays on the continent. Two questions sat at the heart of the work. Why is so much of Africa's food demand still met by imports despite the continent's own productive capacity, and how much of that demand could realistically be redirected to intra-African trade? Across the priority corridors covered by the analysis, Baobab Impact identified the regulatory, infrastructure, and non-tariff barriers suppressing cross-border flows, quantified the import substitution potential that strengthened regional trade could deliver, and set out the policy and investment interventions required to unlock it.
The resulting analysis gives governments, Regional Economic Communities, and private sector actors a clearer view of which trade corridors to prioritize, where to redirect the billions Africa currently spends on food imports, and how regional trade can become a working engine of agri-food self-sufficiency rather than a long-standing aspiration.
Our Work
01

Value Chain Transformation
Unlocking Africa's agricultural potential, end to end.
01

AI for Agriculture
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

Livestock Trade & Investment
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

R&D Ecosystems
Unlocking Africa's agricultural potential, end to end.
01

Regional Trade
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

Tech Commercialization
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
Working for agri-food system transformation
in Africa.
NAVIGATE
Who we are
Services
Initiatives
CONTACT
info@baobabimpact.com
© 2026 Baobab Impact
Nairobi, Kenya


Regional Trade
From Import Dependence to Regional Self-Sufficiency

Regional trade is the most underused lever Africa has for feeding itself, and for reclaiming the billions it spends importing what the continent already grows.
Baobab Impact mapped the agro-commodity trade flows that connect Africa's producing regions to one another and to global markets, looking at where the continent's food, feed, and cash crops actually move, what they cost to move, and how much of the value generated stays on the continent. Two questions sat at the heart of the work. Why is so much of Africa's food demand still met by imports despite the continent's own productive capacity, and how much of that demand could realistically be redirected to intra-African trade? Across the priority corridors covered by the analysis, Baobab Impact identified the regulatory, infrastructure, and non-tariff barriers suppressing cross-border flows, quantified the import substitution potential that strengthened regional trade could deliver, and set out the policy and investment interventions required to unlock it.
The resulting analysis gives governments, Regional Economic Communities, and private sector actors a clearer view of which trade corridors to prioritize, where to redirect the billions Africa currently spends on food imports, and how regional trade can become a working engine of agri-food self-sufficiency rather than a long-standing aspiration.
Our Work
01

Value Chain Transformation
Unlocking Africa's agricultural potential, end to end.
01

AI for Agriculture
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

Livestock Trade & Investment
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

R&D Ecosystems
Unlocking Africa's agricultural potential, end to end.
01

Regional Trade
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
01

Tech Commercialization
Putting precision agriculture in the hands of every farmer.
Working for agri-food system transformation
in Africa.
NAVIGATE
Who we are
Services
Initiatives
CONTACT
info@baobabimpact.com
© 2026 Baobab Impact
Nairobi, Kenya