LUSAKA, ZAMBIA — The Farmers Choice Awards Africa (FCA Africa) has unveiled the categories for the FCA Africa 2027 Awards, taking another major step towards its vision of connecting and celebrating Africa's entire agribusiness ecosystem — from agricultural production and input supply to processing, manufacturing, finance, technology, trade and ultimately getting products onto the shelf.
The 2027 Awards will place particular emphasis on regional strengths and specialisations, with categories designed to identify the companies, entrepreneurs, professionals and institutions driving agricultural transformation across Africa's five regions.
The FCA Africa 2027 Awards will be held alongside the FCA Africa Expo 2027 in Lusaka, Zambia, from 25–26 March 2027 at the Golden Peacock Hotel.
“The FCA Africa Awards 2027 categories have been deliberately crafted to reflect our core objective of connecting the entire agribusiness ecosystem — from production and input supply to processing, manufacturing, finance, technology, trade and ultimately getting the product onto the shelf,” said Gideon Lumbani Chilenga, Founder and CEO of FCA Africa.
"The FCA awards are free to enter and recieve "
“This year, we have gone a step further by ensuring that we identify and recognise the strengths within each region of Africa. East Africa has its strengths, West Africa has its strengths, just as North, Central and Southern Africa have unique agricultural capabilities. Our objective is to create a platform where these strengths can be connected so that the continent can learn from, trade with and benefit from each other.”
The FCA Africa 2027 Awards have been structured around the full agricultural value chain, recognising businesses and individuals involved at different stages of agriculture and agribusiness.
The categories span agricultural inputs, production, processing, manufacturing, retail, finance, technology, logistics, commodity trading, exports and professional services.
The awards also recognise businesses at different stages of development through categories such as Agribusiness Company of the Year, Agribusiness SME of the Year and Agribusiness Startup of the Year.
Chilenga said the intention is to ensure that the Awards reflect agriculture as a connected commercial ecosystem rather than focusing only on primary production.
“We don't want FCA Africa to simply be another awards programme. We want it to become a platform that connects businesses, markets, investors, farmers and opportunities across the continent. Recognition is important, but the bigger opportunity is what happens when we connect the people and businesses being recognised,” he said.
The 2027 Awards will continue with the five regional structures introduced by FCA Africa — Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and North Africa.
While a number of core categories will be shared across the regions, FCA Africa has deliberately introduced unique categories that reflect the agricultural strengths and commercial opportunities of each region.
The approach is intended to identify what each region does particularly well and create opportunities for those strengths to be recognised, connected and shared across the continent.
Southern Africa will feature a broad range of categories covering agricultural inputs, processing and manufacturing, finance, technology, trade, professional services and business excellence.
The input categories include:
Processing and manufacturing categories include:
The finance and technology categories include:
Trade and professional categories include:
Southern Africa will also feature product awards including Best Herbicide, Best Pesticide, Best Insecticide, Soya Bean Seed, Best Maize Hybrid, Best Top-Dressing Fertilizer and Best Tractor Brand.
EAST AFRICA
East Africa will share the core agricultural input categories while introducing categories that reflect some of the region's strongest agricultural value chains.
These include:
West Africa's unique categories will focus heavily on some of the region's major commodity value chains.
These include:
The region will also share the core agricultural input categories covering seed, fertilizer, crop protection, agricultural machinery, irrigation, animal health, animal feed, chicks, vegetable seed and seedlings.
Central Africa will feature core categories in agricultural inputs, exports, logistics and leadership, alongside categories designed around the region's agricultural opportunities.
Unique categories include:
Other categories include:
North Africa will also feature the core agricultural input categories while recognising some of the region's distinctive agricultural industries.
Unique categories include:
The region will also recognise:
The regional approach is intended to ensure that the FCA Africa Awards do not simply reproduce the same agricultural categories across every market.
Instead, the Awards will highlight what each region can contribute to the wider African agricultural economy.
East Africa's coffee, tea, horticulture and avocado industries; West Africa's cocoa, cashew, palm oil, rice and cassava value chains; Central Africa's tropical crops and cocoa; North Africa's water technology, greenhouse production, citrus, dates and olive oil; and Southern Africa's diversified agricultural input, finance, technology, processing and trade ecosystem all represent opportunities for cross-border learning, investment and partnerships.
This approach also mirrors the planned composition of the FCA Africa Expo 2027, creating a stronger connection between the businesses exhibiting at the Expo, the markets and opportunities discussed at the event and the companies and individuals recognised through the Awards.
For the FCA Africa 2027 Awards, companies will be able to enter themselves, while individuals and organisations will also be able to nominate companies, institutions and individuals they believe have made a significant contribution to agriculture and agribusiness.
Entries and nominations will open on:
1 September 2026
and close on:
15 November 2026.
Public voting will then open on:
20 November 2026
and close on:
31 December 2026.
All entries and nominations will be submitted online, making the process accessible to businesses and individuals across Africa.
The FCA Africa Expo & Awards 2027 will take place on 25–26 March 2027 at the Golden Peacock Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia.
The two-day event will bring together agribusinesses, farmers, investors, manufacturers, financial institutions, technology companies, development organisations, policymakers, exporters, retailers and other stakeholders from across Africa.
The Awards will form part of a wider FCA Africa platform focused on business connections, market access, investment, trade, knowledge sharing and recognition.
With the 2027 categories built around both shared continental priorities and unique regional strengths, FCA Africa is positioning the Awards as a platform through which Africa's agricultural businesses can be discovered, recognised and connected.
The central message is clear: Africa's agricultural transformation will not come from one country, one commodity or one part of the value chain.
It will come from connecting the strengths that already exist across the continent and turning those strengths into greater commercial opportunities.
From Synergies to Scale: Unlocking Real Impact in African Agriculture.
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