Gabon Agriculture

Dependent on international markets for agricultural imports worth CFA250bn (€375m) in 2012, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development (Ministre de l’Agriculture, de l’ Elevage, de la Pêche et du Développement Rural, MAEPDR), Gabon aims to significantly increase its domestic food security by 2020, while also...

Intensive cultivation of cash crops plays a central role in Gabon’s ambitions to meet its domestic consumption needs, expand non-mineral exports and generate employment by 2020. The government is eager to attract further investment in palm oil, rubber, coffee and cocoa, as well as new crops like sugar cane, maize and soya. Despite low international...

The continued work to stimulate agricultural investment in Gabon is seen as a critical component of an effort to diversify the economy and reduce dependence on food imports. Despite a fertile climate, abundant annual rainfall and vast expanses of untapped agricultural land, Gabon imports the vast majority of its food needs each year at a cost of...

Increased public and private investment is needed to revitalise Gabon’s agriculture sector and increase its contribution to GDP beyond the current level of 3.8%. Gabon’s rich natural environment, conducive to many agricultural products, has already drawn the attention of international investors.

With almost 14m ha of exploitable rainforest, 400 species of wood and one of the lowest levels of deforestation in the world, tropical rainforests are some of Gabon’s most abundant and promising resources. The forestry industry has traditionally been focused on raw timber exports, with over 60% of production going directly to markets in Europe and...