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By Kei Tagawa

¡°Without innovation, there is no way we can overcome the challenges of our time.¡±

Mr. Ant¨®nio Guterres, The Secretary-General of the United Nations [1]

 

Africa¡¯s agriculture is at a turning point, and innovation and a proactive approach by African policymakers will be the key to unlocking the potential of various strategic agricultural products. The continent currently faces cascading and interconnected global crises, including climate change, energy crises, food inflation, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, all of which adversely affect Africa¡¯s agricultural production and food security. It is, therefore, critical to urgently address these challenges.  At the same time, the tasks ahead would provide important opportunities for African countries to take proactive, innovative, inventive, and transformational steps to increase agricultural production and their values.  

One of the intellectual property (IP) rights, geographical indication (GI), was highlighted as a potential tool to promote strategic agricultural products in Africa at the expert group meeting on Africa¡¯s food system transformation on the margins of the 8th UN Science, Technology and Innovation  Forum in May 2023.[2] A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.[3] African countries should leverage GI along with other IP rights, such as trademarks, patents, and plant variety protection, to promote inventive measures since IP rights could affect the production and availability of agricultural produce by regulating dealings in products, processes, innovation, and data.

Africa has a wide variety of rich culinary traditions, leveraging a wide variety of agricultural products. The potential of these invaluable and intangible assets should be fully released for socio-economic development. For instance, Couscous of the Maghreb region[4] and the Senegalese Ceebu J?n were both inscribed on the representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO, further increasing the fame and value of the already world-renowned dishes. These African culinary traditions and various unique agricultural products provide an excellent opportunity to increase their socio-economic values, and African countries ought to strategically use IP tools, such as GI, to leverage their agricultural products in promoting sustainable development.

 

Geographical indications (GIs) and strategic agricultural products:

GI has the potential to, among others, improve market values and access, provide incentives to local producers, and preserve often-associated traditional knowledge for production. While research on GI's economic impact in Africa is inconclusive, empirical evidence suggests a positive correlation with increased agricultural produce prices. In Europe, where GI was initially developed, a European Commission¡¯s study found that the unit sales value of a product with a GI is, on average, double that of a similar non-certified product. [5] The study was based on all 3,207 product names protected across the 28 EU Member States at the end of 2017.[6]

In Africa, there are a few noteworthy cases of GI products, such as Penja Pepper in Cameroon [7] and Rooibos or Red Bush tea in South Africa, [8] whereby GIs have been leveraged to promote the marketing of agricultural produce not only to nearby African countries but also exporting to the markets outside of the continent, in particular, Europe. These strategic African products were listed in the EU GI register. For instance, the Rooibos industry produces 16,000 metric tons of Rooibos annually and is estimated to generate about $35 million in sales globally.[9] It should also be highlighted that Rooibos is exported to more than 30 countries across the globe, and Germany, the Neverlands, Japan, the UK, and the USA are the biggest importers of Rooibos. [10] In South Africa, it provides income and employment to more than 5,000 people,[11] contributing to socio-economic development. By leveraging GIs nationally and internationally, other African agricultural products could have similar opportunities for economic growth, depending on the potential markets and competitiveness of respective agricultural products.

 

The opportunity for GI to add value to Africa¡¯s strategic agricultural produce: 

 

The African Union introduced a regional instrument on "Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications in Africa (2018-2023)" [12] in 2017. The strategy identified GIs as a tool to promote sustainable rural development and food security. In the following years, an increasing number of African countries, including the OAPI (Organisation Africaine de la Propri¨¦t¨¦ Intellectuelle), have been expressing interest in GI by accessing the international agreement on the ¡°,¡± administered by WIPO. [13] African countries have also progressively registered their strategic agricultural products through regional GI registers of OAPI and the ARIPO (African Regional Intellectual Property Organization), based on the technical support of the EU. 

These GIs include Echalote de Bandiagara, a local shallot, of Mali, and Oignon violet de Galmi, a local onion, of Niger with OAPI, [14] as well as Cabrito de Tete, a local goat breed, of Mozambique with ARIPO, which is the first ARIPO registered GIs [15].The Protocol to the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on IP rights stipulates the establishment of a database and information portal of registered geographical indications by the AfCFTA Secretariat. This would provide an opportunity to broaden the horizon of GI in intra-African trade. [16]

 

GI provides a potential for increasing the values of strategic African agricultural produce, building on appropriate underlying conditions to register as GIs. These conditions include competitive quality of products, necessary infrastructure for their production, and deliberate marketing and branding, among others. countries should, therefore, further promote strategic agricultural products through GIs registration by creating enabling IP legislation and policies that are contextualized to fit national or local circumstances. In particular, these include countries with necessary legal and policy frameworks in place, such as Zimbabwe, where the Government has already enacted relevant laws and policies, but yet to be applied to national agricultural products. [17] Setting up GI involves the participation of different actors, ranging from producers and government departments to other non-state actors, such as local and international experts and research institutions that can play different roles within the process. [18] Through the GI registration, specific regions¡¯ high-quality agricultural products, such as the main cash crops of tobacco and other horticultural products, including flowers and teas, could endeavor to differentiate themselves and increase their values for national and international markets.