The African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) Summit, running from 7 – 9 October 2025 at the Mount Nelson Hotel, opened this week in Cape Town. With the theme “Unlocking Africa’s Natural Capital,” the summit places the continent’s bioeconomy at the centre of strategies to build a resilient, inclusive, and profitable agricultural future.
Defining the Game Changer: What Is the Bioeconomy?
The bioeconomy encompasses all economic activity derived from renewable biological resources — crops, livestock, forests, seaweed, and other organic matter. It moves beyond conventional farming to include innovation in bio-based industries, such as biodegradable plastics, biofertilisers, and biofuels. For agriculture, it opens new markets, creates high-value jobs, and delivers long-term revenue through sustainable, circular practices.
Day One Highlights: Mobilising Finance
From the outset, delegates emphasised the critical challenge of scaling finance. The discussion focused on shifting Africa’s role from raw biomass supplier — currently capturing less than 10 percent of its potential value, according to CIFOR-ICRAF — to value-adding bioeconomy leader. Achieving this requires coordinated investment, policy support, and innovation ecosystems.
Minister Steenhuisen’s Vision
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen delivered the keynote address, declaring the bioeconomy a “truly transformative pathway” to confront the “triple planetary crisis” of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. He linked South Africa’s efforts to its G20 Presidency, stressing continuity with Brazil’s 10 High-Level Principles for the Bioeconomy and global forums such as COP30.
Steenhuisen highlighted local innovations as proof of concept. He pointed to strawberry farmers in the Western Cape who are now using cellulose-based bioplastic mulching sheets that biodegrade after harvest, reducing costs and environmental impact. These sheets, developed through collaboration between the CSIR, farmers, and manufacturers, are now produced more affordably than fossil-fuel alternatives. He also cited vineyards deploying kelp and seaweed-based fertilisers that, according to him, have boosted yields by up to 60 percent while improving soil health and supporting carbon sequestration through kelp forests.
The Minister stressed that “financing the bioeconomy on a large scale is the driving force behind significant transformation,” calling for bio-bonds, lifeboat funds for high-risk innovation, and alignment of trade with climate goals. He framed bioeconomy financing as the key to lifting agriculture from a high-risk, commodity-driven sector to a globally competitive, resilient, and value-adding powerhouse.
Significance for South Africa’s Agriculture
The summit underscores multiple opportunities for South Africa’s agricultural sector. These include value-added processing, turning agricultural outputs and waste into bioplastics, bioenergy, and biopharmaceuticals; developing new revenue streams by cultivating speciality crops for high-value markets such as cosmetics and nutraceuticals; and building resilience through climate-resilient crops, bio-inputs, and regenerative farming practices.
Looking Ahead
Over the next two days, the summit will unveil investment vehicles, present successful case studies from across Africa, and hold dialogues on enabling policies and innovation ecosystems. With agriculture at the centre of Africa’s development agenda, the work done in Cape Town could prove decisive in shaping a profitable and sustainable bioeconomy for the continent.