From September to December 2022, the Zimbabwean company Farm Fare Produce – a family-owned horticultural business supplying fresh vegetables mostly to retailers and supermarkets – was supported by the Fit for Market SPS programme in implementing the SMETA 4-Pillar quality standard, demonstrating the company’s efforts in good practice on social compliance, environment, and business ethics.
A local Zimbabwean expert was assigned to conduct a needs assessment in preparation for the upcoming audit and to train the staff on the SMETA… +
The process of changing the name of our organisation was initiated two years ago in a context of continuous evolution of the field of action of COLEACP and its partners.
The choice of COLEAD – Committee Linking Entrepreneurship-Agriculture-Development is the result of a participatory and iterative process carried out with the marketing committee of the Board of Directors, the team, the members of the association and its main partners. The main motivations/reasons behind the evolution of the name were to… +
By mid-December 2022, the FFM+ programme had received 445 applications for support (AFS): The largest proportion (37%) of AFS were received from Western Africa, followed by Southern Africa (23%), Eastern Africa (22%) and Central Africa (13%).
Organisations in Malawi submitted the most AFS (66), followed by Nigeria (44), Cameroon (30), and Ghana and Kenya (both 29).
Across all countries, a majority (56%) of AFS have been received from horticultural companies, with service providers (16%) and smallholder support structures (15%) also… +
A COLEACP team led by Mr Jeremy Knops, General Delegate, visited Luanda, Angola, as part of the OACPS Business Days. The event, organised by the Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), aimed at promoting the economic transformation of OACPS states through industrialisation and private sector engagement. It was organised in the margins of the 10th Summit of OACPS Heads of State and Government.
Read the OACPS Luanda Declaration: THREE CONTINENTS, THREE OCEANS, ONE COMMON DESTINY:… +
On 23 November 2022, during the 7th Caribbean Agrifood Business Session organised by IICA and COLEACP, several Caribbean companies shared their journey to successfully entering lucrative markets. The online session was attended by over 180 participants from the Caribbean region, Africa and Europe (agenda of the session; spearkers’ biodata). The recording of the session is available on COLEACP’s YouTube channel.
Norman McDonald presented the Jamaican company Canco Ltd. and its brand, Linstead Market, of high-quality products such as canned ackees,… +
The second Caribbean Virtual Agri-Food Trade Mission was held from 15–17 November 2022 to promote commercial exchange between companies from the Caribbean and other regions, to foster trade linkages among agri-food sector entities, and to assist Caribbean companies in consolidating or diversifying their export markets. A total of 172 participants (companies, ministries, UN agencies and programmes, etc.) from five regions (Caribbean, Central, South America and North America, the United Kingdom) engaged virtually in business meetings hosted by a platform that… +
On 28 November 2022, during the 11th Innovations Session organised by the PAFO and COLEACP, inspiring African companies demonstrated how their businesses based on the circular economy contribute to reducing food loss and waste (agenda ; speakers’ biodata). The online session was attended by over 170 participants from Africa, the Caribbean region and Europe.
The recording of the session is available on COLEACP’s YouTube channel.
The growing global population requires increased food production levels to address food and nutrition security… +
Agri-food
Africa
Egypt establishes model farms in nine African countries
As Egypt is seeking new agriculture and food security cooperation across the continent, this nation has established ten joint model farms in nine African countries. Egypt’s Minister of Agriculture, El-Sayed El-Quseir, confirmed the development. He stated that his country had established joint model farms in South Sudan, Zambia, Zanzibar, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Togo, Uganda and Eritrea. According to El-Quseir, Egypt’s idea of establishing joint model… +
Climate
Africa
African female farmers clamour to be heard at COP27
At COP27, where heads of state discussed crucial climate-related issues such as loss and damage, mitigation, and adaptation, it was difficult to hear the voices of African female farmers. But a small representation of them could be found at COP27 side events organised by NGOs and climate justice activists. Some of them came in person from countries currently experiencing prolonged droughts or floods, where farming is impossible and women… +
COLEACP is the lead of the second service area (SA2) of the European Union’s DeSIRA-LIFT programme, which supports the Development of Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture contributing to sustainable agriculture and food systems. Throughout the project implementation, COLEACP has developed strong relationships with the five partner organisations of CAADP-XP4, especially FARA, to support their work on agricultural innovation systems, including activities related to Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). To this end, DeSIRA-LIFT SA2 selected Dr Genevesi Ogiogio, Green Economic Advisor to… +
In October, the NExT Kenya programme worked with AAA Growers, a Kenyan exporter of fresh fruits and vegetables, to facilitate an expert review of the food safety culture and assess upcoming food safety requirements.
AAA Growers hopes to implement a pro-active approach to better understand food fraud, food defence and food safety culture. This will be done through specialist training on each topic and reviewing and updating the current plans and risks/vulnerabilities associated with primary production and post-harvest handling of… +
On 8 November 2022, the NExT Kenya programme trained 22 staff from horticulture producing and exporting companies on “Key changes on GLOBALG.A.P. IFA v6”. The training had a rich mix of participants, including compliance managers, quality managers, staff managing the quality management system (QMS) and internal auditors (QMS and farm auditors).
The training was designed around recent version updates leading to GLOBALG.A.P IFA v6, the final version of which was published on 29 September 2022. The training aimed to update… +
Following a one-day workshop in Paramaribo on COLEACP’s new Rapid SPS Assessment Tool (R-SAT) in May 2022, COLEACP is supporting via the FFM SPS programme, two key interventions designed to strengthen the national SPS systems of Suriname: Review and update the legislation of Suriname for consistency with the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) and provisions for establishing a Parastatal NPPO
An expert review of the current plant health law of Suriname has begun, to ensure consistency with the IPPC legislation… +
As part of the project “Support to the agroecological transition of the pineapple sector in Benin”, COLEACP, with the help of a Beninese expert, is evaluating the performance of more than 400 producers and 15 processors with the goal of developing a personalised transition.
Specifically, this project aims to carry out a three-step intervention: Prepare and conduct a training session on the theme “Assessment, reduction and recovery of waste from the pineapple sector: identifying and assessing the quantity of waste”… +
The 2022 Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs Conference and Exhibition took place in November 2022 at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi. The theme for this year’s conference was “Enhancing Productivity, Quality, Food Safety, and Market Access for Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs”.
The main objective of the conference was to bring together stakeholders (both public and private) in the fruit, vegetables and herbs subsector to discuss challenges and opportunities, with an emphasis on promoting the competitiveness of Kenya’s fresh fruits, vegetables and… +
On 20 October 2022, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development of Togo, COLEACP organized the closing workshop of the “Project to strengthen the phytosanitary control and certification system for fruit and vegetable sector of Togo – STDF/PG/375” funded by the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF). The same event hosted the launch of the new FFM+ programme in Togo.
The STDF/PG/375 project ran for 4 years, from 2018 to 2022. The project made it possible… +
In the framework of the Fit for Market Plus (FFM+) programme, COLEACP organised two training sessions on the new version of the COLEACP Sustainability Self-Assessment System (SAS). The sessions were part of a SAS training programme that will include completion of a self-study course, peer exchanges and mentoring/coaching sessions.
The two sessions took place on the 1 December 2022 in English (AM) and in French (PM). Participants included the COLEACP technical assistance team and COLEACP experts – those with experience… +
On 14 December 2022, COLEACP and the Angolan Embassy in Belgium organised a webinar to present the FFM+ programme to Angolan representatives of the horticultural sector.
The session, held in Portuguese, was organised with the aim of providing additional information on the FFM+ programme and how the different potential partner-beneficiaries can take part in it. Participants were introduced to COLEACP activities, the framework of the programme and process of our application for support.
Participants included COLEACP Technical Assistance representants Ines… +
The Fit For Market SPS programme, in collaboration with the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), organised an information session specifically designed for the Dominican Republic on the new EU Regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products (EU 2018/848), and its implications for the certification of producer groups. This event took place online on 1 December 2022.
The session was opened by Escipión Joaquin Oliveira Gomez, Assistant Secretary General, Sustainable Economic Transformation and Trade, Secretariat of the Organisation… +
A team from COLEACP – Margaux Muyle (Senior Project Officer), Dorothée Vandeleene (Project Officer – Training Department) and Gisèle Mizero (Project Officer – Technical Assistance) – visited Cameroon from 5 to 14 October 2022 for the closure of the “Project to improve the sanitary and phytosanitary quality of Penja pepper to promote its access to international markets” (STDF/PG/593).
The COLEACP team took this opportunity to review the actions carried out with the existing partner-beneficiaries of the STDF SPS programme, to… +
On 24 May 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (Ministerie van Landbouw, Veeteelt en Visserij – LVV) of the Republic of Suriname, in collaboration with COLEACP and CAHFSA, organised a 1-day workshop in the capital Paramaribo entitled “Eggplant R-SAT Validation”. The workshop was attended by key representatives from the public and private horticulture sector. During the workshop, experts presented the results of the application of the R-SAT tool to the SPS control system and identified priority activities.… +
From 3 to 6 October 2022, the Fit For Market SPS programme organised training in Ibadan, Nigeria, on “Crop Protection Strategy” for technical managers, extension staff, agronomists, production managers and staff involved in making crop protection decisions at primary production level. The training combined theory with practice and gathered together 20 participants from 14 Nigerian companies.
At the end of the training, the participants were able to list and identify major crop pests, describe crop protection methods, choose the most… +
Three new plant protection products (PPPs) have been granted a Provisional Authorization of Sale (APV) with the support of COLEACP’s Fit For Market SPS programme at the 6th Extraordinary Session of the Sahelian Committee for Pesticides (SPC) in October 2022. This means that they will be available to producers for the 2023 season in the nine West African countries covered by the SPC: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Gambia. The products are for use… +
During a mission organised to launch the Fit For Market+ programme in Madagascar, a COLEACP team met with professors from the entomology and chemistry departments of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Tananarive, the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques (Agriculture and Sustainable Development Department) and the Ecole Supérieure Professionnelle Agricole de Bevalala, in order to discuss collaboration opportunities. Claire Perez, a project manager in COLEACP’s Training Department, presented COLEACP’s e-learning training platform and the e-Library to undergraduate and… +