New York, NY – Prosper Africa is proud to announce the United States – Africa Trade Desk (USATD)’s first $56M trade deal for 700 containers (1,260,000 crates) of South African-grown table grapes to the U.S. The U.S.-Africa Trade Desk is a joint venture between Prosper Africa and Afritex Ventures, whose mandate is to bridge the gap between African agricultural suppliers and US buyers.
Signed at the Africa Pavilion at the Summer Fancy Foods Trade Show, this transaction will help US retailers keep product prices stable for U.S. consumers during the U.S. growing offseason, when commodity prices go up by 35%. The deal, financed with a structured trade facility by EAS Advisors and Scipion Capital, enhances value for African producers by providing firm off-take prices and removing market volatility.
Shipping will commence in the first week of November 2024 and continue through April 2025, filling the gaps of the US domestic growing season. USATD will facilitate the entire transaction, providing an end-to-end solution that bridges the gap between retailer needs in the U.S. and African production.
“I am excited to not only celebrate USATD’s first ever deal, but also the first time ever that South African grape producers have had the ability to directly export to U.S. retailers at scale,” said Prosper Africa Coordinator, British A. Robinson. “Prosper Africa is proud to work with African companies to help them leverage the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and facilitate their partnerships with US buyers, who want to diversify their suppliers and find top quality products for their consumers.”
“We are pleased to share the news of our successfully concluded transaction with a leading US retailer to fill a large gap in the key commodities market. Through this deal, we have harnessed the agro export potential of African nations,” said Gavin van der Burgh, Chief Commercial Officer, USATD.
USATD also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Baylis Emerging Markets to further expand trade and investment opportunities between the United States and African nations. Franklin Amoo, CEO and Managing Partner of Baylis and a member of the President’s Advisory Council for Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBiA), said “the minimal-risk nature of this deal has opened the door to more partnerships, including our new structured financing partnership with USATD.”
Prosper Africa supported the mutual collaboration between both parties, in continued demonstration of its mandate to advance deals, promote market opportunities, and strengthen trade and investment between the United States and Africa.
About the US-Africa Trade Desk
The U.S.-Africa Trade Desk, a joint venture between Prosper Africa and Afritex Ventures, is set to facilitate at least $300 million in export sales between Africa and the United States through 2025. The U.S.-Africa Trade Desk bridges the gap between African suppliers and U.S. retailers by establishing a secure supply chain from Africa to U.S. retailers by consolidating logistics, insurance, and track and trace technology from farm to retailer. Initially, the focus will remain on specialty food products such as seafood, peppadews, stone fruit, citrus, and high-value herbs and vegetables. This initiative aggregates products from African suppliers, secures firm orders from its established network of U.S. buyers, and accesses financial resources to fund large orders. It not only supports U.S. retailers in diversifying their sourcing, reducing dependencies on traditional supply chains, and embracing high-quality, sustainable products from Africa but also aims to mentor and scale African suppliers for success in the U.S. market. The U.S.- Africa Trade Desk will help streamline business for African farmers by addressing hurdles including logistics and overseas marketing.
About Prosper Africa
Prosper Africa is a U.S. Presidential-level national security initiative created to increase trade and investment between the U.S. and Africa at transformative levels. Prosper Africa is leading innovative approaches to U.S.-Africa trade relations and is changing the way we do business with Africa.
About Baylis
Baylis Emerging Markets (“Baylis”) is an Africa focused investment manager specializing in manufacturing and telecommunications opportunities on a pan-African basis. Baylis employs its expertise in these dual economic pillars of African markets in its highly hands-on approach to create value in promising assets, partnering with management from the field and the factory floor. Baylis seeks to create outsized financial returns in tandem with generating impact through improving environmental standards and creating or maintaining sustainable jobs, thus reducing migration and brain drain out of Africa. Baylis’ long-term objective is to enable the efficient financing of Africa’s industrialization via the deployment of global capital into African markets.
