East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko has met and discussed extensively with Arancha Gonzalez, Executive Director of the International Trade Organization (ITC) on the sidelines of AU Summit held in Kigali, Rwanda how to boost agricultural investment in the region.
With the Market Access Upgrade Program (MARKUP) EAC has mobilized 35 million € from EU, and ITC is a key partner in implementing that regional program whose objective is to contribute to the economic development by increasing the value of both extra and intra-regional agricultural exports.
The support will target selected value chains focusing on interventions from post-harvest to export, and covering quality assurance and certification, value addition, trade facilitation and business promotion.
The two leaders discussed collaboration for diversification of agricultural exports.
ITC is experimenting successfully in a few countries (including Rwanda and Zanzibar) production and exports of spices and essential oils (used by cosmetic industries), and this enables farmers to sometimes increase their income by 20 to 30 times.
ITC is the joint development agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation.
Indeed, these products are bought at a much higher price than traditional cash crops such as coffee and tea, and ITC has enabled farmers to access more directly markets in Europe by eliminating most of intermediaries.
Arancha González, an expert in international trade issues with 20 years of experience, serves as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), the joint development agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation, since September 2013.
González, a Spanish national, has extensive knowledge about international trade and economics, coupled with broad experience in trade and development matters in the public and private sectors, as well as in management at multilateral organizations.
