By Andrew Shirley from The Gambia
The Gambia civil service's former farming chief shows me his new egg-producing unit that would not look out of place in the UK.
Trained as an economist at Birmingham University, this man knows his stuff. And he knows that imports of cheap European eggs are hurting the country's economy.
Tourist hotels no longer touch them because of the risk of Banjul belly for their guests, but locals can't afford home-grown eggs and have to take their chances.
A lack of local feed means poultry farmers depend on expensive imports and this means they can't compete with the dodgy imports.
However, Mr Sompo-Ceesay hopes to use his economies of scale and build his own feed mill. Eventually, he reckons he can supply over half the local egg market.
Good for him, but what about the small-scale Gambian producers? They can't compete with the Dutch thousands of miles away so how will they compete with a new local egg colossus?
But Mr Sompo-Ceesay says his plan will provide new opportunities. He'll need raw materials for his mill and he'll be able to offer farmers forward prices for maize and millet.
The economist, it seems, doesn't agree with some of the community-based approach practiced by NGO's like Concern Universal.
His Keynsian instinct is to let markets and entrepreneurship drive development. Community projects don't encourage individual responsibility and resource utilisation, he says.
He doesn't believe in the protracted knowledge transfer that many development schemes are based on. He prefers a "one-off" entrepreneurial-driven approach.
It seems to make sense. But, then again, he is an entrepreneur of the highest order with good connections and access to healthy credit.
Will the country's smallest farmers really be helped by this approach? I'm not sure. They say all markets will out eventually, but will there be much of Africa left when they do?
What I do know is that the evidence of food dumping is mounting.
Apart from the EU eggs, US rice is under the spotlight. Subsidised at home it is "donated" by the country's aid machine.
Once on the local market, home-grown rice is priced out of contention meaning there is little income to invest in developing a larger harvest.
Development scholar John Wibberly says individual countries should be able to determine their own food policy and if this means restrictions on imports, so be it.
It's not a message many policy makers in the west want to hear - dismantling trade barriers is their forte after all, especially when the west benefits.
But can a free market really exist when there are such huge disparities between nations, especially when the richest seem in no hurry to cast aside agricultural support in one form or another?
Even Mr Sompo-Ceesay's economic vision breaks down at this point. He hints that there might just be a word in the right ear when he hits peak production.
Connections are everything in Africa and everybody is really just looking out for number one - it's the same the world over.