African country to the west importing some empty food container (7)
I believe the answer is:
nosebag
'food container' is the definition.
(food bag hung from an horse's head)
'african country to the west importing some empty' is the wordplay.
'african country' becomes 'gabon' (country in Africa).
'to the west' says the letters should be written in reverse (letters written right to left or 'east to west').
'importing' indicates putting letters inside.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'some' with its middle taken out is 'se'.
'gabon' back-to-front is 'nobag'.
'nobag' placed around 'se' is 'NOSEBAG'.
(Other definitions for nosebag that I've seen before include "Horse fodder holder" , "Horse's feed container" , "Horse's fodder pouch" , "Container for a horse's dinner" , "Feeder strapped on horse" .)