Uganda's Golden Illusion: Is Africa's Coffee Champion Running a Gold-Plated Deficit?
Exports are at record levels and coffee is booming, yet Uganda just posted the worst monthly trade gap in its history. Take gold out, and the picture changes completely.
Weekly analysis
Context the market misses
China's zero tariffs spark 25% jump in SA exports while Hormuz crisis hammers fertiliser
South Africa's exports to China surged 25% under new duty-free access, but the US-Israel war on Iran is driving fertiliser costs skyward across the continent, threatening 2027 harvests.
Who Stole Zobo? Africa Grew It, the World Bottled It, and Nobody Sent the Invoice
Somewhere in northern Nigeria, a farmer is drying a crimson flower in the sun. A few months later, that same flower turns up in a German tea blend, a Mexican street cart and a London wellness café. It is priced at a premium and wears a…
Why Africa Buys Bananas From Ecuador While Its Own Rot
Africa grows roughly 31 million tonnes of bananas a year, ranking among the world's three great banana regions alongside Asia and Latin America. Yet one of the continent's biggest banana buyers fills its markets from the other side of the…
Chocolate Diplomacy: How the UAE Became Africa's Next Big Cocoa Client
For most of the last century, cocoa's story ran a straight line from West African soil to European grinders in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Zurich. That line is bending. Increasingly, it bends toward the Gulf, and the UAE is where the bend is…
The Paul Siguqa Story: From Farmworker's Son to Owner of South Africa's First 100% Black-Owned Vineyard
Franschhoek, South Africa — Every so often, a single act of ownership rewrites the meaning of an entire industry. In the Franschhoek Valley, one of the most storied wine regions on the African continent, that act belongs to Paul Siguqa —…
The Luckin Effect: What Africa Can Learn From China's Coffee Juggernaut
An Africa Brew Brief investigation into Luckin Coffee's scale, sourcing strategy, and the opening it creates for African coffee-producing economies*
Research & sector reports
Decision-grade intelligence on Africa's most consequential sectors.
Africa Brew Brief Monthly Report, October 2026: Bilateral Beats Multilateral: Who Captures the China Cushion?
China's zero-tariff scheme lifted South African exports 25% in four months whilst AfCFTA's 50th ratification delivered no trade. October showed bilateral deals, African-owned capital and processing ambitions outpacing continental promises—but infrastructure deficits, AGOA expulsion risk and fertiliser shocks test whether rhetoric translates to value capture.
EUDR Readiness Index: West African Cocoa 2026
A cooperative-level assessment of traceability maturity, compliance costs and premium capture across Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
The UK-Africa Specialty Coffee Corridor
Sourcing trends, landed cost benchmarks and buyer intentions across 60 UK specialty roasters.
Cashew Value Addition Outlook: Processing in West Africa
Processing capacity, policy incentives and investment economics for cashew kernel processing in Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria.
AfCFTA Food Trade Scorecard
Country-by-country scorecard on tariff implementation, rules of origin readiness and intra-African agri-food trade flows.
Membership
Built for people who refuse to operate on assumption.
Trade advisors, commodity buyers, impact investors and agribusiness founders rely on Africa Brew Brief for the depth mainstream media fails to provide. Choose monthly or annual — save two months when you pay yearly.
54
economies covered
7
core sectors
Daily
news briefs
Weekly
deep analysis