EU and GB MRL changes in 2024 (May – August 2024) Changes to EU and GB pesticide maximum residue levels
COLEAD’s monitoring of pesticide regulations covers maximum residue limit (MRL) changes in both the EU and Great Britain (GB). Note that EU MRLs still apply in Northern Ireland (GB covers only England, Scotland, and Wales).
During the period May – August 2024, we have been highlighting significant changes to EU MRLs that affect 15 active substances, 7 of which are… +
EU and GB approval changes (May-August 2024) EU and GB approval changes
COLEAD’s Regulation Monitoring covers both European Union (EU) and Great Britain (GB) approval changes. Note that EU approvals still apply in Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the mainland comprising England, Scotland and Wales.
The European Commission (EC) has recently published changes to 14 plant protection product (PPP) approvals within the EU, some of which are important for ACP horticulture. These include: Extension of the approval period for amisulbrom… +
Dominican Republic moves towards one health system
The SIA (Sanidad Innovación Agropecuaria) project of the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Agriculture was launched in April 2024. It is funded by the IDB and implemented by COLEAD. The many meetings and exchanges, that have taken place since our first mission in May, have enabled the first results of the project to be drawn up and presented to the various public stakeholders, including local authorities at the highest level.
As a reminder,… +
Understanding EU regulatory changes with AGRINFO
The AGRINFO programme was set up to help the EU’s partner countries (listed as low-income, lower-middle income and upper-middle-income economies in the Development Assistance Committee List of ODA Recipients of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)), understand and anticipate the impact of changing EU regulations on their agri-food exports to the European market. In practice, AGRINFO provides EU trading partners with clear summaries of the “what, why and when” of recent… +
FFM+ supports GOPEX International NV on the path to Suriname’s first GLOBALG.A.P. Certification
GOPEX International NV has successfully completed a critical post-training mission with COLEAD support. GOPEX is a leading agro-industry company in Suriname specialized in the production, processing, and distribution of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables for the local market and export, particularly to the Netherlands. As part of its growth and quality assurance strategy, GOPEX aims to achieve GLOBALG.A.P. certification, a globally recognized standard for good agricultural practices.… +
EDFI MC selects COLEAD to provide technical assistance through the AGRIFI facility
We are thrilled to announce that COLEAD has been awarded by EDFI Management Company (EDFI MC) with the Technical Assistance Consultancy Services on the AGRIFI Facility, after an open tender procedure initiated in November 2023.
This framework contract marks a significant achievement and milestone for the organisation where COLEAD will leverage its extensive experience and broad network of expertise to deliver high-quality technical assistance to private sector… +
COLEAD Annual Report 2023
In a global political and economic context that continues to appear threatening, we must count on the continued determination and shared will of the parties involved in COLEAD’s field of action to continue thinking and working together to contribute to the necessary transformation of agri-food systems. The issues at stake and the needs require us to be ambitious and innovative.
COLEAD must continue to carry out its mission based on a multiple role, in particular… +
COLEAD 2024 General Meeting
COLEAD’s Annual Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) was held on 27 June 2024 in Rungis, with both face-to-face and distance participation, bringing together members from around twenty countries, including Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Ghana, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the UK, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Zimbabwe. The event was an opportunity to share the latest news from the association over the past year and the strategic directions… +
Understanding the impact of trade-related capacity building interventions
This article presents the findings of a pilot study commissioned by COLEAD in the framework of the FFM+ programme to explore the ‘spillover effects’ of trade-related capacity building interventions over the past two decades aimed at improving the export horticulture value chain in Kenya. Spillovers, understood as unintended impacts of development interventions, have been underexplored in standard project performance matrices. While some work has been done in this area by organizations… +
Burton & Bamber: a Kenyan success story
Burton & Bamber is a Kenyan company, registered in 2015, that processes fruit into snacks and food ingredients. These include dried fruit (mainly mango) and fruit rolls, granola, orange flesh sweet potato extruded snacks and aseptic fruit purees. The company works with 500 smallholder farmers to source produce and provide access to markets for their products. Some of the farmer groups are GLOBALG.A.P. certified, while the company’s processing facilities are FSSC 22000… +
Benin Senegal: an example of strengthening local expertise
COLEAD, through the FFM+ programme, supported an 8-month ICRA training course for two of its experts on the theme “Boosting agribusiness: building trust in agribusiness relationships for sustainable growth”. The training took place from September 2023 to June 2024. Through online and face-to-face sessions, individual and group practical work, personal mentoring and individual feedback, the experts were trained to Establishing and strengthening sustainable business relationships between farmers and agribusinesses, input and… +
Cameroon: towards a strategic plan for the Penja pepper IGP
In the first half of 2024, a Cameroonian expert successfully completed the mission “Elaboration of the strategic development plan for the Groupement Représentatif de l’Indication Géographique Poivre de Penja (GR.IGPP)” under the Fit For Market Plus (FFM+) programme. The main objective was to design the plan while (i) identifying the priority services to be put in place to operationalise the plan, (ii) defining the group’s economic model and (iii)… +
Technical resources for 27 educational institutions
On Thursday 13th of June, COLEAD organized through the FFM+ programme a new webinar for training institutions focused on enhancing pedagogical skills and tools using COLEAD’s digital resources and network. Various COLEAD departments presented relevant e-resources such as the e-learning platform, e-library, crop protection database, skills framework, analytics and the AGRINFO platform.
The webinar had a total of 44 participants representing 27 different training institutions both from the African as well as the… +
Zimbabwe: “I’ve learnt a lot about training programmes”
From June 10th to 14th, 2024, the Fit For Market Plus programme provided an intra-organizational training to the Horticultural Development Council (HDC) and ZimTrade, two key business membership organizations in Zimbabwe. The global objective was to enhance the training capacity of HDC and ZimTrade on how to define their training offer to their members through a viable and sustainable training model.
The support was delivered in two phases. First, HDC and… +
The PAFO-COLEAD Partnership: results of the 2024 satisfaction survey
Since 2020, the Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO) and COLEAD have been working together in a strategic partnership. This collaboration aims to strengthen fair and sustainable business linkages between smallholders, farmer groups, and agri-food Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) on the African continent. Together, they are developing joint activities to support the transformation towards sustainable and inclusive food systems in Africa. The primary goals are to promote sustainable and inclusive… +
Packaging : alternatives to plastic
The COLEAD Market Insights department keeps an eye through the FFM+ programme, on trends and innovations at major trade shows, and one of the hot topics is sustainable packaging. Forthcoming regulatory changes are driving innovation, as seen at Fruit Logistica (Germany), Macfrut (Italy) and the recent Empack (Belgium).
Discover cutting-edge alternatives to plastic such as cellulose, thermobonded packaging, laser-printed labels on produce and waterproof recyclable paper solutions, highlighting the industry’s slow but steady shift… +
A new biopesticide is now available in Kenya
A new bioprotection product; HALT NEO 5% WP (Bacillus thuringiensis sub-species kurstaki 32000 IU/mg) has been officially registered by the Kenyan Regulatory Authority, Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), under Reg No: PCPB(CR)1959 for control of the False codling moth (FCM) on Sweet Pepper. This registration which is a result of field trials supported by COLEAD through the NExT Kenya and FFM SPS programmes, in collaboration with a Kenyan plant protection product… +
Results of a GCFP survey
The Global Coalition of Fresh Produce (GCFP) , a collaboration of global fresh produce associations, recently conducted its second annual survey to assess the impact of rising production and trading costs on fresh fruit and vegetable suppliers. The survey included 88 respondents from various sectors including growers, shippers, packers, wholesalers, distributors and other supply chain partners in Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania. Note that more than 50% of the respondents are producers… +
Launch Workshop for the STDF Project in Senegal
On 6th June 2024, the new project “Strengthening phytosanitary capacity to promote exports of horticulture products from Senegal” was officially launched in Dakar. Funded by the STDF and implemented by COLEAD, this project aims to strengthen Senegal’s phytosanitary system in partnership with the Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture, represented by the Directorate of Plant Protection.
The project, which will last for three years, revolves around four main areas: Revising the legal framework,… +
MANGO-SO in Burkina Faso: a business success story based on the development and certification of processed coconuts and mangoes.
MANGO-SO, founded in 2001, is a Burkina Faso company specialising in the drying of mangoes and coconuts. 90% of its dried mango production is exported directly to the European Union (Germany, Sweden, Italy), while the rest is sold locally to another company for marketing. The entire production of dried coconuts is destined for Germany. MANGO-SO is HACCP and BIO certified… +
Kenya, Vegpro: an example of the successful implementation of an internal training unit.
Vegpro Kenya, one of the country’s largest horticultural producers and exporters, has made significant progress in strengthening its internal training capacity. As a major producer of fruit, vegetables and flowers and a major employer in the region, Vegpro has long recognised the importance of training and capacity building for food safety, compliance and performance. However, the investment required for external training was a significant challenge.
To… +
COLEAD’s first development project in São Tomé and Príncipe (coco value chain).
Following a meeting with VALUDO at Biofach, COLEAD received its first application for support from São Tomé and Príncipe through the FFM+ programme in 2023. This project is an important step for COLEAD in its commitment to support sustainable agri-food systems in ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries.
Following a Sustainability Assessment (SAS) to identify key challenges and gaps, a tailor-made action plan was developed to benefit… +
BENIN: a new innovative Africa-EU university-private sector partnership for sustainable pineapple production.
Pineapple production is at the heart of export diversification in Benin. However, the depletion of soil nutrients and high energy requirements for pineapple juice production challenge its sustainability. Within an independent research project funded by VLIRUOS (Belgian government), a pioneering project in Benin aims to address these challenges through an innovative and collaborative approach, optimising the use of underutilised pineapple crop residues and processing them through… +
INDIA: Evolution and impact of EU regulation on the agenda at meeting with Indian exporters.
Upcoming EU regulations and their implications for Indian Food & Agri Exports were the primary focus of a workshop organised in Antwerp on June 20 by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations with the support of the Belgian Embassy and COLEAD through its Agrinfo programme.
The workshop was part of a series of meetings between Indian, Belgian and Dutch food businesses seeking to expand… +