in africa had a balanced agricultural trade when both exports and imports were at about usd billion but by its agricultural imports exceeded exports by about usd billion faostat the increase in agricultural and food imports has been particularly striking for basic foodstuffs such as dairy products edible oils and fats meat and meat products sugars and especially cereals implying that food imports have been playing an increasingly important role in ensuring food security for lowincome fooddeficit countries persistently high and rising import bills can have serious macroeconomic and social impacts