Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa equips private enterprises and public agencies with new data analysis tools for decision-making to build healthy, resilient, and effective food markets in Africa.

Rapid change in African agricultural production and value chains call for new forms of data analysis, using newly available information about market conditions to improve decisions about product attributes, sourcing and pricing. Our project aims to help food-related enterprises obtain and analyze market intelligence, combining public and private data using new software tools for the insights needed to improve the overall nutritional quality of food supplies, the robustness of supply chains, and the cost-effectiveness of new investments and ongoing operations. Towards that aim we will convene a Consortium on Data Analytics for Food Markets in Africa (DAFMA), bringing together a diverse group of private enterprises, farmer associations and industry groups along with public sector entities to deliver new analytical tools that transform raw data into actionable insights, based on frequent interaction in working groups and our online platform.

Our mission is to equip private enterprises and public agencies with new data analysis tools to inform decision-making and build resilient, healthy, and effective food markets in Africa.

How we work

Our theory of change

Our theory of change is that enterprises make new investments and change business practices only when their decision makers have confidence that each step will help the enterprise survive and prosper. Guiding change towards societal goals requires analytical tools that reveal otherwise hidden opportunities for more inclusive and climate-resilient supply of more affordable nutritious foods, while limiting systemic market failures such as monopoly power and negative consequences for the environment and public health.

Project workstreams

Our project workstreams will deliver actionable insights and software tools for analysis of an enterprise’s own private operational information, as well as proprietary market intelligence and public-domain data, through:

1. Shared governance of a consortium that attracts enterprises ranging in size from local businesses working in a single country to regional and global firms, spanning from agricultural input and service providers to farmers’ associations and cooperatives, as well as all aspects of food production, distribution and retailing, with regular meetings co-financed by participation fees that are proportional to firm size and include pro-bono members to ensure accountability, demand-driven results, and rapid feedback;
2. Methodological innovation for new software tools, analytical methods, and actionable insights in response to end-user needs and feedback obtained through consortium meetings, under the guidance of the platform’s steering committee;
3. Market intelligence for enterprise decision making, using consortium members’ own confidential information combined with proprietary data about other firms provided to consortium members by Euromonitor International;
4. Ground-truthing and validation with local market analysts providing qualitative insights and quantitative guidance on the highest-priority questions identified by consortium members and the steering committee; and
5. Improved enabling environments through technical assistance to governments for monitoring food prices and diet costs, transforming data into actionable evidence for the public investments, policies and programs needed to build inclusive markets.

Project outputs

Our project outputs will inform one or more decisions that affect an enterprise’s ability to grow and prosper by meeting societal demand for more affordable and nutritious, inclusive and resilient food supplies.

Example actions include innovations in:

• product sourcing, connecting farmers to customers;
• farm inputs, service provision and value chain financing;
• farmer associations and inclusive business practices;
• quality assurance and standards for nutrition, food safety and other attributes;
• transportation and storage to lower costs, raise quality, improve stability and post-harvest loss; and
• enabling environments for new investment and improved operations.

Our geographic focus is Sub-Saharan Africa, including especially the nine countries where Euromonitor has field staff (Angola, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda) plus Rwanda.

Project outcomes & impacts

Our project outcomes begin when consortium members (a) gain access to actionable insights for more inclusive food markets in Africa, developed in dialogue among enterprises with different functional roles and operational scales, which then leads to (b) new analytical methods and software tools that address the needs of decision-makers using newly available data and techniques, and (c) use of insights and guidance to guide market activity based on accurate information validated by local analysts.

All three components are needed for private enterprises to grow in ways that meet societal needs for more resilient, healthy and inclusive food systems, and will be tracked through an embedded monitoring and evaluation framework using operational records from consortium meeting

Funding and origin of our work

The design of DAFMA followed from a scoping study in 2024-25 by the Food Prices for Nutrition project, through which interviews and other evidence revealed an unmet need for a platform by which private-sector food enterprises could obtain and share insights from new data sources and software tools. The Food Prices for Nutrition project itself worked only on enabling environments, collaborating with national governments and international organizations to create new metrics of diet costs and affordability for improved food access. DAFMA now aims to work directly with the private enterprises needed to actually deliver those more affordable healthy diets, by building increasingly cost-effective and resilient supply chains and distribution systems. The overall portfolio of work led by Tufts University on metrics to improve food access and affordability of healthy diets can be followed here: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/food-prices-for-nutrition.