Building Africa’s Exports Through Quality
A continental forum on the standards, systems and trust that decide what Africa can sell to the world, convened in Addis Ababa by TradeMark Africa and the Government of Ethiopia.
Government of Ethiopia, through the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration and the Ministry of Transport and Logistics.
TradeMark Africa, one of the continent’s largest aid-for-trade organisations.
Building Africa’s Exports Through Quality.
Two days of dialogue and decisions, with 250 to 300 senior participants.
Ten years to a single crate of mangoes.
In December 2025, a consignment of Apple mangoes from Makueni County in Kenya was loaded at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and flown to the United Kingdom, restoring access to a premium market that had been closed for more than a decade. Modest in volume, it was historic in meaning.
The story behind the shipment is a story about standards: credible phytosanitary controls, traceability, certification and food-safety assurance. Apple mangoes now account for more than 80% of Kenya’s mango production, the product of decades of work on varietal improvement, orchard management and post-harvest handling.
But none of that mattered to a UK buyer until Kenya could prove, on paper and in the laboratory, that the fruit met UK phytosanitary and food-safety requirements. Reaching that proof took ten years of coordinated investment, delivered in part through TradeMark Africa, the Government of Kenya, the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, the Fresh Produce Consortium of Kenya and CABI International.
When a moth threatened a billion-dollar industry.
In late 2024, the European Union’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety placed East Africa’s flower industry under one of the toughest plant-health audits the sector has faced. The threat was tiny: the False Codling Moth, visible only under a microscope, able to hide inside a rose bud or a capsicum. The EU treats it as a zero-tolerance quarantine pest, so a single live larva is enough to reject an entire consignment, and inspection rates on high-risk imports had risen from 5% to around 25%.
The stakes were enormous. Kenya’s floriculture exports were worth around 1.1 billion dollars in 2025 and Ethiopia’s cut flowers about 400 million, together supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Failing the audit would have meant losing the market that buys most of them.
Passing required more than good farms. It required a national system an external auditor could test and trust: registered production sites, greenhouse integrity checks, surveillance regimes, pack-house quality control and end-to-end digital traceability. With support from the European Union and the Mastercard Foundation, channelled through TradeMark Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda built those systems. Kenya and Ethiopia passed in November 2025. Rwanda is now strengthening its architecture for the next round.
Three countries proved it can be done. ATDF 2026 makes it the norm.
Standards are the lingua franca of trade.
Standards are how the world agrees that products are safe. For Africa, the stakes are high.
People in the market the AfCFTA opens. Its value is unlocked only if a product certified in one country is accepted in another.
African exports the European Union absorbs each year. About 30% of EU food-safety rejections involve African goods.
Of Africa’s businesses are SMEs, employing most of its women and young people, yet fewer than one in five trade across borders.
SMEs that trade across borders today. The cost and complexity of certification is a leading reason why.
What is already changing.
An independent evaluation completed in early 2025 by AENOR Conocimiento examined TradeMark Africa’s standards and SPS work across six countries. Where governments, regional bodies, businesses and development partners worked together, quality systems improved and trade followed.
Less time for conformity assessment. Firms that once waited seven months for certification now wait four.
Lower certification costs across the portfolio, with the largest gains in Rwanda (65%) and Uganda (45%).
Of surveyed firms increased sales after meeting the new standards. Employment at those firms grew by an average of 24%.
Adoption of harmonised East African Community standards from 2018 to 2022, covering trade estimated at 8 to 12 billion dollars a year.
What ATDF 2026 sets out to do.
An invitation-only continental forum convened by TradeMark Africa in partnership with the Government of Ethiopia, gathering around 250 to 300 senior participants for two days of dialogue and decision-making in Addis Ababa.
Make quality a priority
Elevate standards, SPS systems and quality infrastructure as political and investment priorities for Africa.
Connect evidence to decisions
Link evidence from firms, regulators and regional programmes to the choices facing governments, donors and the private sector.
Examine the reforms
Reduce repeated testing, shorten certification timelines, strengthen laboratories, digitise trade documentation and support mutual recognition.
Launch the evidence base
Publish a public evidence base on standards as strategic infrastructure for African trade, including the flagship report Trust is Trade: Standards as Strategic Infrastructure.
The people who can act.
ATDF 2026 gathers the decision-makers who set the rules and the leaders who trade under them.
About TradeMark Africa.
TradeMark Africa is one of the continent’s largest aid-for-trade organisations, working across more than 20 countries to reduce the barriers that make African trade slow and costly. From one-stop border posts to digital trade systems and quality infrastructure, its focus is the practical machinery of trade and the standards that turn compliance into market access. ATDF 2026 is convened by TradeMark Africa in partnership with the Government of Ethiopia.
Join Africa's most influential trade conversation
ATDF 2026 is invite only. Request your accreditation to join Heads of State, Ministers and industry leaders in Addis Ababa.
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