Emerging Markets Africa director Michiel Hillen says by focusing on regional markets for their agricultural products, the entrepreneurs would not only increase their profit margins, they would also have more reliable markets as there are less likely to be changes in standards management.

Rather than target Western export markets, Rwandan small scale entrepreneurs, especially those in the agriculture sector, have been urged to consider opportunities in regional markets.

Emerging Markets Africa director Michiel Hillen said by focusing on regional markets for their agricultural products, the entrepreneurs would not only increase their profit margins, they would also have more reliable markets as there are less likely to be changes in standards management.

Hillen was last week in the country en route to Bujumbura, Burundi, for an international agribusiness meeting scheduled for October 2.

"If you are in horticulture, it is advisable to invest in regional markets before considering the European market,” Hillen told The New Times.

The prices might be lower, but there are few trade barriers, cheaper shipping costs, and regional markets are more dependable.”

His remarks came around the same time the East African Community missed the October 1 deadline for the completion of negotiations and eventual ratification of the all-important Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

If ratified, the economic partnership agreements would see EAC member countries receive preferential treatment for its multi-million Euro horticulture products.

The agreement

Part of the agreement would facilitate duty and quota-free access for exports from EAC to the EU as well as gradual removal of duties and quotas over a period of 25 years.

Emerging Markets Africa is a global corporate advisory firm that provides tailor-made advice to companies with regard to business development in Africa’s emerging economies.

Small and medium enterprises in the region during the recent World Export Development Forum in Kigali, cited unnecessary standards and requirements by part of the western market especially Europe as a challenge that has for long held them back from internationalising their products and services.

Hillen said the hesitance by the EU to complete negotiations could have been largely influenced by politics in some European countries.

"To a large extent the hesitance and the import barriers that are being witnessed by some of the members of East African Region to get their products into the European market are politically driven,” Hillen, himself a Dutch national, said.

"It is to protect the interests of politicians in some of the European markets who are out to please their voters most of them farmers. Some farmers in these regions are afraid that if products from the region make it to their markets, theirs will not survive the competition.”

However, he added that the tide would turn soon as Europe was coming to the realisation that other regions in the world were warming up to the region and to Africa as a whole.