Mostly associated with fresh fruits, vegetables, and live animals straight from production zones, African mass markets bring together many people, irrespective of class, religion, or socioeconomic backgrounds. As thriving local economies, mass markets support ecologically-sensitive trading and consumption. It is not by chance that each of the articles in this publication starts with production and ends with investigating a local market.

Mass markets have long since recognised that smallholder farmers, who are in the majority in Africa, cannot produce solely for narrow value chains but are good at reflecting wider food systems. They do not exist in isolation but co-exist with traditional markets and prove that not all agricultural commodities can be traded through formal channels. That is why all African countries have dynamic mass markets stretching from rural areas to urban roadsides. Many of the markets are situated at borders where they cement cultural, knowledge, and food trading.