The Africa Trade Fund (AfTra) has approved funding worth more than $1.4 million for four projects in support of trade development in Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) disclosed on its website on Monday.AfTra, a trade-related technical assistance facility hosted by the AfDB, was established in 2013 to provide funding for trade facilitation, building capacity for trade institutions, and developing products and markets in Africa.

According to the AfDB, two of the projects that have just been approved will support value chains development in the apiculture and cashew industries.

The first, titled Trade and Institutional Capacity Building in the Apiculture Sector, will be implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organization, Zambia.

It will improve the capacity of traders, processors and producers of honey and bee products.

This will allow them, among others, to upgrade within the honey global value chain by exporting table honey instead of bulk honey, thereby capturing more of the value.

The other value chains development project, presented by the African Cashew Alliance (ACA), aims to support cashew industries in both East and West Africa.

These projects were all carefully selected to make sure that they achieve the goals of helping African countries trade better with each other and to facilitate their integration into global value chains, said AfTra Fund Coordinator, Moono Mupotola.

“The projects are in line with AfTra’s central goal of unlocking Africa’s trade potential,” Mupotola added.

Source: Star Africa

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