Senegal Country Commercial Guide
Learn about the market conditions, opportunities, regulations, and business conditions in senegal, prepared by at U.S. Embassies worldwide by Commerce Department, State Department and other U.S. agencies’ professionals
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Agricultural Sector
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Overview

Agriculture is an important barometer of the economy, accounting for about 16 percent of GDP and providing 30 percent of total employment in 2020.  Despite agriculture’s importance, Senegal lies within the drought-prone Sahel region, with irregular rainfall and generally poor soils.  As a result, Senegal relies on imports to meet approximately 70 percent of its food needs.  Top agricultural imports in Senegal are rice, wheat, corn, onions, palm oil, dairy products, fresh vegetables, sugar, potatoes, and food preparations and ingredients for food processing. 

President Macky Sall’s economic program focuses on agriculture as an engine for development and plans to invest $4 billion in agriculture.  The agricultural plan calls for massive investments in irrigation and rural roads, access to finance through the creation of a Guarantee Fund, the construction of storage facilities, the development of the fishing sector, and the creation of an agricultural stock exchange market.  U.S. total exports of agricultural products to Senegal totaled nearly $8.6 million in 2022.  Senegal ranked number 145 among U.S. Agricultural export markets.  In 2022, top 10 U.S. agricultural exports to Senegal included food preparations, vegetable oils (excluding soybeans), condiments and sauces, sugar and sweeteners, fish and seafood, rice, pulses, soybeans, processed vegetables, non-alcoholic beverage (excluding juices), and distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Top prospects for U.S. agricultural exports to Senegal include feed ingredients, food preparations and ingredients for food processing, and select consumer-oriented products.  

Leading Sub-Sectors

  • Senegal has growing demand for tractors, farming equipment, expanded irrigation systems, postharvest handling systems, storage, and silo facilities. 
  • Increased commodity output should also stimulate demand for processing technology or innovation and growth in the packaging industry.  There are plans for a cereal (import oriented) and fruit (export oriented) terminal and associated warehousing facilities in the Port of Dakar. 

Opportunities

Investment opportunities in the agricultural sector can be viewed at https://www.afdb.org/en/projectsoperations/project-portfolio/1/

Resources

West Africa Trade Hub:  https://westafricatradehub.com/