Irish business leaders whose enterprises operate in Africa have appealed to other businesses to empower Africans, including young people, to increase agriculture and food production on the continent.
Promoting education in Africa’s food sector, and bringing those individuals forward to lead projects, is key to unlocking the continent’s full potential, Chris Teeger of the Kerry Group — which owns the largest and most advanced taste facility in Africa — told a panel discussion at the Africa Ireland Trade Horizons conference in Dublin on Tuesday.
Many African countries have doubled the importation of agricultural food crops from outside the continent, even after the ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). They imported $55 billion of food products in 2024 and that figure is expected to rise to $110 billion this year.
“We need to see the value in African people. The youth are the key. The spirit they bring to everything is everything. We need to take those local people and youth, educate them, unskill them and let them lead the future of the food production sector in Africa,” Teeger said.
“We have employed many young people who are graduates from a vast number of universities and they have just grown and grown.”
He noted that there is no shortage of resources in Africa and that South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria are leading producers of rice, maize and wheat, adding: “We need to stop shipping commodities to Africa that are already available in Africa.”
Ivor Queally, the chief executive officer of QK Group South Africa, backed Teeger’s assessment of food production in the country.
The QK group entered South Africa in 2005 and is now a key role player in the cold storage market, boasting one of the leading meat packing facilities in the country.
Queally recalled that the company had discovered early on that the process of starting operations in South Africa would not be easy.
“We realised early that there was a gap in terms of education and skills. We therefore had to set up schools to educate our employees. We then noticed a lot of absenteeism in schools and found out that HIV/Aids was a big problem in South Africa at the time and there were no ARVs available, so we then had to set up clinics to assist people with that,” he said.
The investment in people, rather than products, had proved a success, Queally added.
“When we entered South Africa, we brought in Irish people to train our employees. Now, we have no Irish employees in South Africa and we bring Africans to Europe to do training on this side.”
Africa needs to be promoted in Europe to allow investment that can help the continent reach its full potential, both Queally and Teeger told the forum, adding that Europeans need to understand that opportunities in the food production sector are plenty and that the relationship between the two regions can be equal and mutually beneficial.
The journalist’s trip to Ireland was sponsored by the Embassy of Ireland in South Africa.