Africa

The World Bank is set to grant funds of between US$100 million and US$125 million (R1,3 billion and R1,7 billion) to Ivory Coast to mitigate the drop in cocoa prices. Cocoa is a key commodity in the west African country.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in Southern Africa (FAOSA) is hosting a two-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the region’s response to fall armyworm (FAW). The meeting closes tomorrow, 26 April.

Zimbabwe’s Cold Storage Company (CSC) is set to be capitalised.

Visitors will be offered an opportunity to meet with some of the world's leading agricultural companies, and network with agricultural professionals as well as government and union officials at the Zambia Agritech Expo held from 27-29 April, in Chisamba.

The cashew nut farming industry in Lamu County, Kenya, faces collapse after years of losses. These follow a government ban on exports in 2009, according to the Daily Nation newspaper.

The Zimbabwe government recently withdrew a tobacco tax less than a week after its introduction. The 10% tax on tobacco was imposed on 31 March and scrapped on 5 April.

Bruce Moffat, a great-great-great grandson of Zimbabwe's earliest white missionary, Robert Moffat, has won a protracted court battle over the ownership of a farm the Moffats have worked since 1910.

The 5th Commercial Farm Africa summit in Tanzania brought together industry professionals from all over the continent to share insights into transforming Africa’s agricultural value chain.

A joint venture between Schweppes Zimbabwe and a government parastatal, which invested US$3 million (R45m) in a fruit-processing plant near the capital Harare last year, is to spend an additional US$10 million (R150m) on another beneficiation facility in southern Zimbabwe.

The Ugandan minister of agriculture, animal industries and fisheries, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, has issued a warning about fall armyworm infestations in that country.

The slaughtering of fewer broilers and the production of fewer eggs had resulted in the decrease of poultry production in Zimbabwe in 2016. This was according to an industry report.

Tobacco processor, British American Tobacco (BAT) Zimbabwe, reported a 45% drop in its bottom line for the year ended 31 December 2016.