Crown Agents USA, Inc. hosted a panel luncheon on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 to discuss non-traditional food security interventions. The panel was organized by Society for International Development - Washington, DC Chapter (SID-Washington). Titled "Encouraging Regional Trade in Africa to Promote Food Security", the panel was moderated by former USAID administrator Andrew Natsios and featured panelists from ACDI-VOCA, the World Food Program and Crown Agents' Customs and Trade Facilitation practice.
Jon Walden, Senior Advisor for Customs and Trade Facilitation, spoke about the effects of poor transport infrastructure, citing that in many African countries around 50% of crops are lost in transit from "field to fork". One of the key aims must be to improve inter-modal transport capabilities in the region to streamline the movement of cargo and, consequently, reduce freight costs. In addition he discussed how regional integration, including reduction of non-tariff barriers such as modernisation of customs procedures, standardisation of documentation and phyto-sanitary requirements, can help reduce border delays. Agreements on uniform axle weights for cargo vehicles can help to lessen the burden on roads infrastructure. Recent IT Single Window initiatives and the establishment of one stop border posts can also help simplify and encourage regional trade and the transit process. This is particularly important in relation to the establishment and sustainability of Regional Trade Corridors.
The panelists covered issues and best practices from value chains, local purchase programs and transport facilitation. Paul Guenette, ACDI-VOCA's Technical Managing Director for Agribusiness, provided an overview of food security in Africa and spoke about improving agribusiness and value chain performance. Mr. Guenette believes the focus should be on creating better links for the farmers and pastoralists to the market. A better value chain increases competitiveness of an industry and the ability of small firms to contribute to and benefit from this competitiveness. Catherine Feeney of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) spoke about the contribution of local and regional food procurement to food security in Africa. WFP's Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative links smallholder farmers to markets through collaboration with technical experts from a wide range of partners. This leads to a boost in their agricultural production, the ability to sell their produce at a fair price, and an increase in their annual farming incomes. P4P procurement modalities include cereal fairs for producers and traders, direct contracting for food, a warehouse receipts system and forward contracting for future purchases of food commodities at a guaranteed price.
Crown Agents has been working to support efficiencies in customs and regional integration in Africa for the past three decades. Some highlights of our programs:
- Goods in Maputo were cleared 40 times faster than the pre-reform rate, making Maputo one of the most efficient terminals in Africa. The port became a strong rival to Durban City Port in attracting merchandise exports from the rest of Southern Africa as the result of our Mozambique Operational Management of Customs Program (1997-2005).
- Crown Agents successfully introduced a Single Administrative Document (Documento Único), in accordance with new Southern African Development Community (SADC), simplifying customs procedures for traders in our Angola Customs Expansion and Modernization Program (2001 - Present).