In just three months since an outbreak of African swine fever in Nigeria, about 70,000 pigs died in the country’s largest pig farm cooperative, according to Nigeria’s Federal Department of Veterinary and Pest Control Services, resulting in around NGN 20 billion worth of economic losses for pig farmers. For this reason, the FAO Representative in Nigeria has urged all value chain operators to embrace good biosecurity measures.

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Flour vendors in six arid and semi-arid Kenyan counties are currently reporting a decrease by 83% in the availability of maize flour, due to the recent invasion of desert locusts, which ravaged large swathes of farmland. Furthermore, according to the Kenya Cash Consortium, the supply of beans has also dropped by 80% in the market.

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Starting this week, all restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars in the Los Angeles county will be closed for at least three weeks, due to the recent surge in coronavirus cases. Many businesses in the US hospitality industry, which have been losing money for months and struggling to keep their doors open, may not survive to these new restrictions.

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Despite being the third most consumed stapled food in Nigeria (and its demand is expected to further increase in the run up to Christmas), rice prices are currently beyond the reach of the common man is several markets throughout the country, due to a shortage in the domestic supply caused by the flooding (which has recently washed away 2 million tons of rice, out of the expected 2.5 million tons this year). Local rice brands have disappeared from the markets, so foreign brands have been the saving grace for most Nigerians (despite their high prices).

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According to the International Network for Family Poultry Development, the high prices of feed in Nigeria (which have increased together with the prices of raw materials used to make feed, such as maize and rice bran) are causing financial losses to many husbandry households and farms (especially those that raise poultry), because for them feed accounts for around 87% of the total costs of production.

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A recent surge in the demand for poultry products in Pakistan has led to the increase in poultry prices amid a decrease in chicken production, determined by the coronavirus lockdown. Furthermore, according to the traders in Peshawar, another reason behind the upward trend in chicken prices is that the poultry products are shipped to Afghanistan.

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In Canada, more than half of the food supply is wasted through production, processing, distribution, retail, food service and at home. For this reason, Canada’s Ministry of Agriculture has recently launched the Food Waste Reduction Challenge (as part of the country’s wider food policy), which is now open for concept applications. CAD 10.8 million will be awarded to the company that will propose innovative ways to prevent or divert food waste at any point from farm to plate.

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The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, implemented by Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture and funded by the African Development Bank, has the overall objective of increasing the country’s food output by harnessing proven technologies to raise agricultural productivity and by promoting diversification and processing. The programme has proved to be particularly beneficial for farmers struggling amid the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Singapore’s farmland consists in about 500 acres, which is an area that corresponds roughly to the size of a single American farm. In order to reduce the dependency on food imports amid the coronavirus pandemic, the country has been trying to reinvent agriculture by converting industrial buildings into vertical farms with climate-controlled grow rooms.

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Industrial development in Africa has been sluggish since the 1980s, and the hopes for an acceleration of this progress in the short term are fading as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic reveal themselves completely. However, many countries are on a good path to achieve the diversity needed to allow manufacturing to drive industrialization, especially for what concerns the industrial and agro-processing sectors (Ghana and Uganda, for example).  

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The US Department of Labour has recently added fish caught in Taiwanese waters in the list of goods produced with forced labour, which could lead to US import restrictions on Taiwan’s seafood (together with Thailand, which is also on the US forced labour list). In fact, the country mainly exports seafood to Europe, to Japan and to the US, but its fishing fleet has long been associated with abuse of migrant fishermen, mostly from Southeast Asia.

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In October, Laos recorded a trade deficit of over USD 34 million, according to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic Trade Portal website. In fact, the country’s exports, consisting mainly in bananas and sugar shipped to China, Vietnam and Thailand, were worth USD 347 million, while the value of its imports was equal to USD 382 million.

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