The latest market study from COLEACP’s Market Intelligence service is “State of play and opportunities of the European market for fruit and vegetables from ACP countries”.
Four years on from our original 2017 report, this new publication provides an update on the evolution of the European market, and development opportunities on this market for fruit and vegetables of ACP origin. You can access the European market study here (in French) and here (in English).
If you are a COLEACP member… +
Just published The latest market study from COLEACP’s Market Intelligence service is “State of play and opportunities of the European market for fruit and vegetables from ACP countries” – more information available here.
COLEACP also produces market profiles – targeted studies focusing on specific countries and/or commodities, often at the request of stakeholders. The most recent are: Market profile of processed tomato in Senegal (open access)
French
English Market profile of mango purée and cut mango pulp from Côte d’Ivoire… +
Do you have a European market for taro?
The Eastern Caribbean Trading Agriculture and Development Organisation (ECTAD CARIBBEAN) is a national small farmers’ organisation based in St Vincent and the Grenadines, with connections and networks throughout the Caribbean. Its farmers produce a variety of crops, with taro/dasheen (Colocasia esculenta) being one of the main crops exported; secondary crops include eddoes, ginger and sweet potatoes.
The organisation has been marketing taro/dasheen to clients in Europe for over ten years through its… +
“I can boldly say it’s the best support I have received towards managing my business.”
Dr Agnes Fasehun
During June and July 2021, SwanCape Farms, a fast-growing farm-to-door company in Nigeria, participated in business coaching with an Agri-Logic expert, organised and facilitated through the Fit For Market programme. Throughout 2020-21, business training and coaching has formed a key part of COLEACP’s Covid-19 Action Plan.
The agri-business coaching focused first on issue resolution – human resources, cashflow and profitability, operations, competition… +
AFRICA
Réunion Island vanilla gets EU Protected Geographical Indication
Vanilla from Réunion Island has just been registered by the European Commission in the register of Protected Geographical Indications (PGI). Its reputation is based on its unique aromatic bouquet, the result of the plant’s perfect acclimatisation on the volcanic slopes of the east of the island and the know-how developed by the people of Reunion.
Source: Commodafrica, 30 August 2021
Opportunities for Ethiopian avocados
“Ethiopia has huge potential in avocados” says… +
A meeting was held on 15 September 2021 with the Ethiopian National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO), the national focal point and the COLEACP team to introduce COLEACP’s Rapid SPS Assessment (R-SAT) tool. The R-SAT tool was developed by COLEACP to support relevant authorities, in consultation with key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, to assess the status and functioning of SPS systems. Bringing together the public and private sectors will allow the development of a priority action plan based… +
With the support of COLEACP, the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) is undergoing significant changes to ensure that it fulfils its mandate and maximises the value it offers to member countries. CAHFSA’s role is particularly important in the current context of a global pandemic; the increasing importance of non-tariff barriers and agricultural nationalism; threats to food security; and the need to rapidly diversify and expand exports from the Caribbean region.
For CAHFSA to contribute effectively to addressing… +
Since June, training on good SPS practices for the Penja pepper sector has been continuing through the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) project “Strengthening the phytosanitary monitoring and certification system for Cameroon’s fruit and vegetable sector”.
Stricter European regulations since 2016 threatened to limit the export potential of Penja pepper, a unique agricultural product originating from Cameroon. This project centres on supporting Penja pepper producers to understand the SPS risks and strengthening their capacity to deal with them. The… +
During 2021 COLEACP is providing a team of expert consultants to support national/regional initiatives to develop Good Practice Guides for horticultural value chains. These Guides are being developed, disseminated and kept up to date by stakeholders within each value chain. They are not COLEACP publications – they are written, owned and published by the professionals, within each country/region and crop sector, who will inform and use them. Stakeholders in the sector who take on this task receive practical support throughout… +
One of the main challenges for ACP exporters is finding the right buyers. Many European businesses use trade fairs to manage their relations and show their presence on the market, so they are ideal places to meet with various importers. They also offer great opportunities to find information on your target market(s) and present your company directly to your potential customers. You will probably find a large concentration of relevant prospects in one place.
But participating in trade shows will… +
Participants in COLEACP’s training on Implementation of Official Controls in Suriname reported that it was a truly enjoyable and successful learning journey together. A happy bunch of 19 employees of the Ministry of Agriculture were given a practically oriented training course, in Dutch, in August/September 2021.
The training focused on the importance of International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) in relation to the Ministry’s mandate to effectively carry out phytosanitary controls and inspections; the types of official controls; and the… +
This year’s UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS2021) launched a competition to recognise the importance of (SMEs) to the future of food and to acknowledge that small businesses are too rarely heard on the international stage.
The Best Small Business: Good Food for All competition selected 50 winning SMEs – from cafes through farmer cooperatives to digital start-ups – from nearly 2,000 applications from 135 countries. The winners and share US$100,000 in cash prizes. Their stories and impactful work is presented… +
4–8 October 2021 is the Caribbean Week of Agriculture. To celebrate, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and COLEACP are presenting the third Caribbean Agrifood Business session on Thursday 7 October, 10h00-12h00 EST.
The theme will be “Post-Covid-19: Building stronger links between agriculture and tourism – the key role of SMEs and businesses”.
You can register here. The online Caribbean Agrifood Business Series focuses on a range of topics including improved production, trade and competitiveness; food safety and… +
During the summer COLEACP has continued to offer group capacity building for ACP National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs), providing platforms for representatives of NPPOs to meet one another and share their experiences.
Pest surveillance e-learning now in French Following the success of the English version, the first French training session on pest surveillance took place in June on COLEACP’s e-learning platform, followed by a further session in August. Together they reached 33 participants including representatives of the NPPOs of seven… +
To celebrate the United Nations International Year of Fruit and Vegetables (#IYVF2021), COLEACP is collaborating with the OECD Fruit and Vegetables Scheme, which aims to promote international trade through harmonising the implementation and interpretation of marketing standards.
Together the partners have launched the Fruit and Vegetables Industry Series of online sessions to highlight the significance of the sector.
The first of the joint sessions, on 14 September, focused on “The fruit and vegetables industry: Market trends and prospects of a… +
“The Trust is excited, ZimTrade is thrilled, GreenStone Foods is over the moon whilst COLEACP is looking at building on this success to help the Trust grow. What a journey!”
William Zirebwa, COLEACP National Relay Zimbabwe
In August 2021, 45 smallholder pineapple farmers in Rusitu Valley, Chipinge, members of the Rusitu Valley Fruit Growers and Marketing Trust (RVFGMT), received a major boost when they achieved organic certification of their pineapples by Ecocert (The Herald, 27 August). The attainment of… +
Key points
Alpha-cypermethrin is no longer approved within the European Union (EU) since 7 June 2021.
EU approval was not renewed in 2020 and it also expired in 2021 for two other key plant protection products (PPPs):
— mancozeb (since 5 January 2021); and
— pencycuron (since 31 May 2021).
The EU notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its intention not to renew three key PPPs:
— indoxacarb (notification: 2 August 2021; open for comments until 1 October 2021);… +
COLEACP has begun its first sessions of pilot training on implementing a commercial service within a professional organisation. This training, carried out in collaboration with the National Agency for Agricultural and Rural Consultancy – Niayes Area Directorate (ANCAR Thiès), is aimed at producers in the market gardening sector operating on the local informal market. During the training a COLEACP expert, Ms Jeanne Marie SARR, worked with a producer group of Yade in the Niayes region, alongside the ANCAR agent who… +
Key points
Since the start of 2021, European Union (EU) maximum residue level (MRL) changes concerned 83 plant protection products (PPPs; 59 in 2020). These changes refer to modifications compared to the previous regulation, and can be either an increase or lowering of the MRLs for certain foods.COLEACP identified 27 key substances used in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) horticulture that are affected by these changes. For 10 of the substances (ametoctradin, bupirimate, chlorothalonil, dimethoate, ethoprophos, myclobutanil, propiconazole, pyraclostrobin spinetoram,… +
In July Dr Chagema Kedera, COLEACP Coordinator for the New Export Trade (NExT) Programme in Kenya, presented a video on “Public-private cooperation in risk management” at a Workshop on Risk Assessment, Risk Management, and Risk Communication hosted by the World Trade Organization Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
He discusses the four key aspects of risk management – governance, operational processes, capacity, and communication – through the example of Kenya’s experience. For successful risk management, close interaction between public and… +
The Annual Report 2020 of COLEACP and its programmes is now online here.
The report focuses on the digitalisation of our activities. In 2020 Covid-19 made our daily lives more fragile – but also accelerated our activities, our local anchoring, and our use of digital tools. We have continued to deliver the planned support to our partners across the OACPS countries by helping to mitigate the negative impacts of Covid-19 on their production and marketing of horticultural products. “The Covid-19… +
Dear Partners
COLEACP is contacting you with details and links to a survey on pesticide residues in organic products that is being conducted by IFOAM Organic Europe and FiBL. Their work addresses an issue that, as you know, creates serious challenges for the organic sector. The results will benefit the sector as a whole and we strongly urge you to take part.
Background
IFOAM Organic Europe and FiBL are currently working on the project: ‘Developing Organic: Pesticide use and contamination’… +
The closing event of the “incubator for technical managers” project, implemented in Togo from June 2020 to February 2021, took place on 10 June 2021. The project was set up by COLEACP in collaboration with Togolese companies in the framework of the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Togo Project. Other partners who were involved in the occasion included the European Union Delegation, the German development agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ), the Plant Protection Directorate (DPV) of Togo… +
COLEACP’s NExT Kenya (New Export Trade) programme has held a consultation meeting with the Machakos County Government through the Department of Trade, Industrialization and Innovation (DoTII), to discuss the potential areas of support to the county through the programme. The meeting took place on 19 July at COLEACP’s Nairobi implementation office.
Present at the meeting were: Dr Chagema Kedera, NExT Kenya Programme Coordinator; Bruce Chemjor, COLEACP Project Manager; Dr James Mutuku Mutunga, DoTII, Machakos County Government; Dr Muema Wambua, Director,… +