FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT
-
Adequate rainfall during 2011 benefited crops
-
Moderate increase in consumer price inflation in 2011
Favourable weather conditions benefited crops
Agriculture contributes about 8 percent to GDP, reflecting the predominance of the petroleum industry. The main food crops are cassava and plantain, and the country also produces a small amount of maize (on average, approximately 33 000 tonnes per annum).
Harvesting of the main maize crop was completed in January. Adequate and well distributed rainfall benefited crops in most producing regions during 2011.
Moderate inflation despite high international food prices
Gabon imports the bulk of the cereal requirement through commercial channels. Cereals imports in 2011, mainly wheat and rice, are estimated at about 177 000 tonnes, about 80 percent of total requirement.
The country suffered from high inflation in 2007 and 2008 (when annual inflation rate reached 5 percent) because of its high dependence on imported cereals, which greatly eroded purchasing power and access to food of a large number of people in both urban and rural areas. Food prices remained mostly stable in 2009 and the first half of 2010. In spite of renewed increase in international prices in 2010 and 2011, inflationary pressure on the domestic food market was limited due to a stronger currency, subsidies and cuts in the value-added tax rate in 2011. Average annual consumer price inflation is estimated to have accelerated only marginally to 1.9 percent in 2011 compared to 2010. In January 2011, prices of imported wheat and rice were, respectively, 6 and 4 percent below the levels of January 2011.
A joint Government/African Development Bank project launched to rehabilitate rural infrastructures In an effort to enhance food security, Gabon is currently committed to diversifying the economy and developing agricultural production. However, several factors constraint the development of the agricultural sector, the most significant being inadequate road network and marketing infrastructures, and the lack of an appropriate funding mechanism. To tackle these constraints, the African Development Bank launched in August the project PARIR (Rural infrastructure Rehabilitation Support Project) to support the efforts of the government in boosting agricultural production through the rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads, market and storage facilities. The project activities will involve the entire Woleu-Ntem Province in Northern Gabon, an area with a high potential for agriculture and trade with the capital Libreville, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.