Marketing and certification of organic maize

The great majority of maize produced in Africa is consumed locally, as maize is an important staple food in most areas. Average per capita maize consumption in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase from 44 kg in 1993 to 50 kg in 2020.

In recent years, maize has also become a cash crop with local industries (for the livestock sector and breweries) due to economic growth, urbanization and rising incomes.

As a result, there are growing domestic and continental market opportunities for maize throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This potential can be positively used by organic farmers to position organic maize at the national and continental levels.

However, the market for certified organic maize is still very small, or does not exist. But given the fact that many small-scale farmers are already using some organic practices such as intercropping, they can easily learn and make use of full organic practices to establish sustainable and productive production systems for their families and take advantage of the local market opportunities without organic certification.