by Justice Lee Adoboe
ACCRA, May 1 (Xinhua) -- China's zero-tariff policy for 53 African countries offers a major opportunity to strengthen agricultural value chains and boost exports, some stakeholders said, noting that realizing its full benefits will depend on targeted investment, skills development, and supportive policies.
Kouka Zoungrana Yameogo, Burkina Faso country director for Lutheran World Relief, a global charity focused on strengthening rural economies, said the initiative presents a significant opportunity to boost agricultural value chains.
Speaking to Xinhua on the sidelines of the 2026 Shea Conference recently held in Accra, Yameogo noted that non-traditional exports, such as shea butter, sesame seeds, soybeans, cashew nuts, and cassava chips, stand to benefit from tariff-free access to China, where demand for such products remains strong.
With these commodities already widely available in West Africa, Yameogo said the priority now is investment and capacity building, particularly to equip producers, most of them women, with the technical skills needed to scale up production.
"The most recent data I have indicates that we are only exporting 30 to 32 percent of our potential. So this means there is a giant potential to increase the production," Yameogo said, adding that exporters must also be trained in quality management to meet the standards of the Chinese market.
Yameogo urged governments and private investors in West Africa to channel resources into modern techniques, technology, and equipment, especially to support women-led enterprises engaged in harvesting and processing these products to meet rising demand.
Meeting market standards, she stressed, also requires traceability and certification, "because at the end of the day, everyone wants to know what kind of product or quality of product he or she is eating or having on his vessel. So certification is key; flexibility is key. And the bottom of all those things is about training, capacity building, and investment in processing."
She called on African governments and the private sector to invest more in women working along these value chains to improve product quality, increase output, and raise incomes.
Seth Twum Akwaboah, chief executive officer of the Association of Ghana Industries, an advocacy group for manufacturing companies in Ghana, told Xinhua that the initiative's benefits will not materialize automatically without supportive policies to enable the private sector to take advantage of it.
"The essence of this is to be able to export manufactured products. The size of Ghana and that of China, population-wise. It's a market that, if you get, will transform your whole economy ... So really, it's an opportunity for us," Akoaboah said.
However, Akoaboah said the policy also serves as a test for African governments, as significant transformation is needed for local businesses to compete in the Chinese market.
"China is the manufacturer for the whole world... They represent the most competitive production hub globally in terms of pricing, quality, and aesthetics... So, if you want to enter that market, then you must be so competitive," he noted.
Achieving such competitiveness, he added, will require a substantial reduction in production costs to ensure that exported goods can compete on price.
For Ghana, Akwaboah said: "It's important that, as we have stabilized the macroeconomic environment and seen all the recoveries, at this stage, we should be looking at growth and transformation. Because the growth and transformation are what will make us competitive in the Chinese market."
