Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
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Considerable bottlenecks and obstacles to increasing export and trade in agricultural products
still exist in many OIC countries, such as import tariffs and administrative burdens of cross-
border economic activities. Quality problems, such as high levels of bacterial contamination of
agricultural products or noncompliance with international standards, often impede access to
lucrative export markets. These problems are particularly severe for least developed countries
within the OIC that lack the required infrastructure to ensure and maintain the quality of
products. In this way, they are often not able to make use of preferential access to high income
markets which they are granted based on their least developed country-status. For instance,
the Gambia has duty-free access to the EU, the US, Japan and a variety of emerging economies,
but is unable to export significant quantities of groundnuts as production does not comply
with international norms.
6.2 Recommendations
Increased attention for agricultural value chains
Although the share of agriculture in GDP and employment tends to decrease as an economy
develops, agricultural value chains provide a way to promote economic growth and contribute
to poverty reduction. Opportunities for value creation abound in agricultural value chains – for
instance through increased processing, service provision, and market specialisation. While
traditional export markets in high income countries (e.g. in the EU) continue to be lucrative
outlets for high value products, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, emerging economies are
turning into the leading source for demand growth for agricultural products, particularly for
meat and dairy products, due to growing populations and rising incomes. These dynamics in
international trade patterns offer opportunities for economic growth, poverty reduction and
food security through agricultural value chain promotion.
6.2.1 Institutional framework and public policies
Increased political commitment and public policies
Governments have a key role to play in value chain promotion, starting from production and
processing through to distribution and consumption activities. Reducing the role of agriculture
to the mere aspect of production does not capture the opportunities for value creation along
agricultural value chains – many of which lie in the manufacturing and services sector.
Continuous political commitment and designated strategies are critical to promote key value
chains, i.e. value chains where individual countries have a comparative competitive advantage,
be it in production, processing or distribution.
Improving agricultural output and sustainability
Many OIC Member Countries are confronted with the need to feed a growing population on the
one hand and decreasing availability of agricultural resources, such as arable land and water,
on the other. Increasing agricultural output without putting too much pressure on the
environment is thus critical, particularly in the face of climate change. This requires specialised
research institutes and effective extension services dedicated to improving the cultivation and
processing of certain crops and breeding of livestock. This is particularly needed when the
private sector does not show an interest in establishing or financing such institutes.
Better crop varieties with more value added
Many producers in the OIC countries struggle with low productivity (low yields) and low
quality production due to the continued use of substandard crop varieties. Others grow