Sub-Saharan Africa: Market access and barriers to trade

EHCs for red meat include offal except where shown with an asterisk in the table. Dairy EHCs include dairy-containing products such as milk, cheese and butter.

The UK has EHCs to send red meat to most countries in Table 1. Kenya, Madagascar and Mali are exceptions, and only pork can be exported to South Africa.

For dairy, market access is more mixed: the UK only has EHCs for 12 of the 22 countries shown.

Table 1. UK EHCs for animal product exports to selected sub-Saharan Africa countries

*Offal not included in EHC

Source: Animal and Plant Health Agency Find an export health certificate on GOV.UK

Red meat

World Trade Organisation (WTO) tariff rates (i.e. import tariffs applied in the absence of preferential trading arrangements) are fairly high for red meat for most of the region, as shown in Table 2.

The tariff rates in Table 2 are the latest WTO-averaged tariff rates for the relevant four-digit harmonised system (HS) code assigned to different commodities/products. More recent tariff rates for individual six-digit (or higher than six-digit) HS codes can be found at Get tariff data on the WTO website.

Table 2: Average import tariffs for red meat in selected sub-Saharan African countries, %

Averaged tariff rates are expressed as % of price, unless otherwise stated
c - cents

Source: World Trade Organisation

Nigeria has banned imports of beef and pork, along with other commodities, to protect its domestic industry. WTO members have called on it to remove the ban as it is incompatible with WTO rules.

For most countries in Table 2, import tariffs for offal are identical to those for meat. Tariffs applied to offal imported into Namibia and South Africa are typically lower than those applied to meat.

The UK has continuity agreements in place with Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya from when it was a member of the EU. The UK also has economic partnership agreements (EPA) with:

• Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, which cover Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe
• The Southern African Customs Union and Mozambique (SACUM). Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa are members of the Southern African Customs Union

The main origins for red meat imports into sub-Saharan Africa are the EU, Brazil, Australia and the USA. A degree of intra-regional trade also exists, with the region’s main red meat producers (such as South Africa) supplying other countries in the region. The UK is the top origin for Ghana’s sheep meat imports and the third largest supplier of offal to South Africa, after the USA and Australia.

Dairy

Tariffs on dairy product imports into sub-Saharan Africa vary greatly depending on country and product. Tariffs on milk powder are generally lower than for butter and cheese (Table 3).

The tariff rates shown in Table 2 are the latest WTO-averaged tariff rates for the relevant four-digit HS code assigned to different commodities/products. More recent tariff rates for individual six-digit (or higher than six-digit) HS codes can be found at Get tariff data on the WTO website.

Of the countries shown in Table 3, Angola has the lowest tariffs on dairy products. At the other extreme, Kenya applies a 60% tariff on milk powder and cheese imports.

Table 3. Average import tariffs for dairy products in selected sub-Saharan African countries, %

Averaged tariff rates are expressed as % of price, unless otherwise stated
c - cents

Source: World Trade Organisation

As mentioned in the section How much do they consume?, there is a much higher demand for milk powders than butter and cheese. The EU and New Zealand are the main dairy product suppliers into sub-Saharan Africa.

Continue reading about the sub-Saharan Africa market

Economic overview

How much do they consume?

Consumer insight

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