The Brazilian G20 presidency brought much-needed attention to the problem of hunger with the launch of the G20 Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. Through its G20 presidency in 2025, South Africa renewed this commitment to address food security and poverty, as well as inequality.

According to the UN, 730 million people faced hunger in 2023. The situation is particularly disturbing in Africa, where hunger has been rising steadily since 2015, with the unaffordability of nutritious foods a key driver. Food prices are on average more than 30% higher in African cities than in other low- and middle-income countries. One of the drivers of high prices has been a lack of effective competition due to high levels of market concentration.

Research by the African Market Observatory shows that excessive margins are being charged in the food value chain, inflating food prices. At the same time, farmers are being squeezed by high input costs. Both worsen food insecurity. For example, the price of maize in Kenya showed an average excess margin of 82% between January 2023 and June 2024. Fertiliser prices have been excessive across the region – in Malawi, prices have been 200% higher than world market prices. These situations reflect a lack of competition and high levels of concentration, in national and regional markets, that require further investigation.

Nearly half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa do not have competition regimes in place. Of the countries with such institutions, the majority are nascent and have not yet built their enforcement capacity. At the regional level, only one authority of the five regional blocs in Africa is actively enforcing competition law.

This policy brief shows that the extreme levels of concentration in agricultural and food markets across Africa are driving up food insecurity and poverty and harming small producers, informal enterprises, and vulnerable consumers. Aligned with Taskforce 4 and the sub-theme of food security, it makes the case for strengthening competition institutions through technical and legal capacity building, effective regional cooperation, and increased investment in data, research, and analysis.

Achieving SDG 1 and SDG 2 requires the removal of barriers that prevent markets from functioning properly. Strong competition institutions are an important first step toward unravelling entrenched market concentration and making sure that the rules of the market are fair for everyone.