Can East Africa become the food factory of the world? The participants in East Africa Agricultural Value Chain Investment Summit 2012 believe that the answer is yes! The summit, to be held at Serena Hotel, Kampala Uganda on 4th - 6th December 2012, is the biggest and most important event for value-added agriculture in East Africa.

Organised by the UK based Focus on East Africa (FOEA) and supported by the Uganda government, the summit is a promising opportunity for Companies that are looking at creating investment opportunities and opportunities to create shared value among players in the agriculture value chain in the region.

Mr. Edward Katende, FOEA's managing director says that "East Africa now holds a lot of potential for production of value added agricultural products. Value-added agriculture could change not just the rural face of East Africa but the whole region by increasing returns to the players in the agriculture value chains and could make East Africa the food factory of the world".

The summit will bring together  leading agricultural value chain operators, leading industry experts, analysts, project finance heads, development finance institutions, agriculture project sponsors, agribusiness leaders, regulators, project developers, advisors, project managers, government decision-makers and leading market commentators  in reviewing the state of the East African agricultural value chain market and in shaping future collaboration landscape of the region's agriculture value chain. It will offer a premier learning platform to present new perspectives, 'feel-the-pulse' of the industry, network, build new partnerships and strengthen existing alliances with the right business partners at the highest level.

Already some of the leading international players who have identified the appeal of this region  such as the Acumen Fund, Standard Chartered Private Equity , Jain Irrigation Systems , UK’s Sainsbury’s Supermarket, Standard Bank and Silk Invest, have confirmed their participation .

The Summit is 100% results-driven, bringing together the main stakeholders and partners involved in the topics tackled to achieve concrete action plans. The event will be an intense, intimate gathering of people who influence and move markets, manage multimillion dollar portfolios, and who are seeking or hold vetted investment projects or capital.

The region (including Ethiopia, DR Congo and South Sudan) is endowed with agricultural resources such as large expanses of uncultivated arable land, fertile soils, water resources and good climate. These have, however, not been put to proper use leaving lots of room for improvement in the level of production. On the other hand, farm produce from most farmers goes to waste due to poor marketing or storage, whereby the season’s produce either goes to waste due to lack of buyers or proper postharvest mechanisms, or is bought at ridiculously low prices by exploitative middlemen.

Coffee, tea, cotton, mangoes, bananas, passion fruit, pineapples, bananas, tomatoes and African leafy vegetables are just some of the numerous products that are in abundant production across the East African landscape. Most of these are either exported fresh or sold locally, with the region missing out on profits from value addition of these products, which has the added advantages of shelf life extension, product diversification and employment creation.

There is a whole world of opportunities in the region for value addition of products that is untapped and numerous gains can be made with the vast resources in the region.  For instance opportunities exist in the production of fruit beverages, jams, marmalades, jellies, sauces, canned products, frozen products, dried products etc.

Additionally, fruits such as Mangoes, pineapples, bananas and vegetables, if well marketed, can create a niche market as exotic fruits and vegetables both for the local market and for export. Most of the product is also grown naturally with no chemical or fertilizer application (mostly by small scale farmers) and entrepreneurs in value addition have the opportunity to market their products as natural, healthy and organic; which, in today’s health-conscious society, gives an upper hand over other brands.