ACTESA | A Specialised Agency of COMESA

The Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) was launched on the September, 24 2008 by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)’s Ministers of Agriculture.

This came as a result of the meeting of COMESA Ministers of Agriculture held in Victoria, Seychelles in March 2008, where the COMESA Secretariat was mandated to hasten the preparation and design of ACTESA as a follow up to the 2006 Abuja declaration by the Africa Union (AU) on food security in Africa to promote development of collaborative partnership for expanded trade in staple foods.

The Objectives of ACTESA are to:

• Improve competitiveness and integration of staple foods markets in COMESA member states through improved micro and macro economic policies as the drivers of staple food markets;
• Improve and expand market facilities and services for staple food’s commercialization
• Increase commercial integration of staple food’s producers into nation and regional markets.

ACTESA will focus on building market information system, providing services and increasing commercialization of smallholders in the following sub-sectors:

1. Grains and Pulses
2. Oil Seeds
3. Roots and Tubes
4. Livestock
5. Forest and National Products
6. Tree Crops
7. Agriculture Inputs