Agri-food value chains play a crucial role in shaping sustainable food systems. By linking farmers, processors, distributors, and consumers, they ensure that food is produced, handled, and delivered efficiently while minimizing waste and environmental impacts. To build robust and equitable value chains it is essential to strengthen the infrastructure for trade, markets, and processing and to ensure that all the actors, including farmers, receive a fair remuneration.

Investment initiatives such as the Global Gateway Initiative of the European Commission help to advance connections across regions to make agri-food systems more resilient and support a thriving bioeconomy. 

Well-functioning value chains are vital for achieving food security, improving nutrition, and sustaining the livelihoods of all food system actors.

Value Chain Assessments for Development

Since 2016, the VCA4D project has conducted over 50 studies coving a wide range of products and countries. The purpose of value chain analysis is to provide decision makers with evidence-based information that relate to sustainable development strategies. The assessments are done with a standard methodology allowing to answer to 4 framing questions:

1. What is the contribution of the VC to economic growth?
2. Is this economic growth inclusive?
3. Is the VC socially sustainable?
4. Is the VC environmentally sustainable?

The VC assessments are here.

VCA4D Synthesis Studies here.

Publications on "agri-food value chains"

Explore relevant publications on this topic from the database of the KC-FNS.