According to the IITA, Africa imports about 1.5 million tons of soybean a year. Let’s say that Trump’s trade war with China has been the reason that soybean prices have fallen from $10 a bushel to $7.50 a bushel over the last year or two. There are 36 bushels in a ton so African countries are saving $2.5 x 54 m bushels = $135 million each year. Not enough to change consumption or nutrition very much unless there is a huge import surge. of course, we must also remember that soybean has been a rapidly growing crop in many production regions in Africa, and a price slump could slow that growth, and the consequently the externalities that come from developing the export market and the processing market.
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Recent Posts
- Reading Nov-Dec 2025 and Jan 2026
- AI as an existential threat – Kevane preliminary draft
- “What can it do?” A living list of computational problems that deep learning/AI/neural nets can or seems likely to “do” (at varying cost and efficacy)
- Reading August-September 2025
- The typical popular sci-fi version of AI posing an existential risk?
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Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Sumbrungu Community Library nighttime reading
- Résumé du livre Une grande mère criminelle
- Organisation d’une séance de discussion autour d’un livre à la bibliothèque de Dimikuy
- Librarians of Tuy monthly meeting January 2026, Burkina Faso
- Impressions sur la production de livres CMH au Burkina Faso
- Compte rendu de la première rencontre des gérants de la zone du Tuy
- Science fiction books for libraries in Burkina Faso and Ghana
- Animation d’une séance de lecture à la bibliothèque de Dimikuy
- Nyariga Community Library in Ghana, photos January 2026
- Visite à la bibliothèque de Béréba, Burkina Faso