The rapid rise in domestic value chains of nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, and animal products) in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy implications

The supply and demand of nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits and vegetables (FV) and animal products (AP), have been found to be inadequate and too expensive for most consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, WHO, 2023). The international debate has mainly focused on the constraints and problems fueling this inadequacy.

This paper showed that despite the incontrovertible facts that SSAs under-consume nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables (FV) and animal products (AP), and the farm production and supply chains of these products are fraught with constraints that keep them from operating optimally, there is abundant recent evidence of dynamism in these sectors. To wit: (1) consumption of these products in levels and shares is already substantial and growing rapidly; (2) supply of these products is growing rapidly, just not yet much faster than population growth; (3) supply growth is manifested in a number of countries by dynamic “meso booms” with diffusion of farming and growth in midstream VC segments.

The authors reviewed recent survey-based evidence of these booms and discussed the drivers of them. The analysis leads to a range of policy implications and research gaps to be explored.