Last April, the Unité de Transformation de Fruits et Légumes Tako Sylla (USTAKO), a Malian company exporting dried mangoes, received support from COLEACP’s Fit For Market programme for a review of its food safety management system and capacity building of its technical staff on HACCP principles. This support enabled the company to prepare for the renewal of its HACCP certification, which it obtained in September following the certification audit. Congratulations to USTAKO for obtaining its new certificate.… +
In the field of plant health, the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) is the world’s reference organisation. It offers many high-quality publications, including Capacity Development guides that support the activities of National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs).
COLEACP has been collaborating with the IPPC to co-publish French versions of eight of these guides, which were originally published in English, particularly with the intention of making them available to the francophone countries in West Africa. The guides draw extensively on requirements specified… +
We held a stakeholder workshop on 11 November in Penja, Cameroon to present the draft “Guide to good SPS practices for the Penja pepper value chain” to representatives of both public and private sectors, to collect feedback on the document. The aim is to achieve validation of the guide by the entire value chain. COLEACP warmly thanks all the stakeholders in the sector for their participation in this workshop, which represents a crucial step for the Penja pepper sector, and… +
After a period when all COLEACP’s activities were organised remotely due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, field activities in Côte d’Ivoire are now resuming.
COLEACP is working with a pineapple cooperative towards their compliance with the Fair For Life standard. The COLEACP expert and the company’s managers have committed to complying with World Health Organization recommended health and safety measures during their meetings.… +
COLEACP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and action plan with the Province of Sankuru in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of its Fit For Market Programmes.
The aim is to contribute to capacity building of stakeholders in the province’s horticultural sector to improve the quality and quantity of production, and strengthen access to local, regional and international markets.
Priority areas of work, defined in phases, are: Identify actors and horticultural activities at the provincial level: improve… +
Management staff at Lucy Agricultural Development Plc in Addis Ababa have just received remote training on good business management practices, and coaching on how to monitor and update an existing business plan. The training, given by a COLEACP expert from Kenya, was provided through the EU/AFD-funded Fit For Market programme.… +
COLEACP and SPEG (Sea-Freight Pineapple Exporters of Ghana) are collaborating to organise awareness sessions on the appropriate use of ethephon for the export of pineapples to the EU. The first of two sessions took place on the 30th October in Pokrom region, with around 30 producers. Participants included conventional pineapples producers/cooperatives supplying third-party companies exporting to the EU, or exporting themselves to the EU.
The session included field and packhouse observation of samples of sprayed fruits reserved from previous exports,… +
A virtual meeting, facilitated by Mr Babacar Samb, brought together participants from several NPPOs (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Senegal, Togo). The aim was to set up an audit system within the NPPOs. This first meeting made it possible to introduce a guide developed by COLEACP: “Basic elements for implementing an internal audit system” in connection with implementing the systemic approach for the control of fruit flies in the mango export value chain. The NPPOs will then… +
Innovations and successes of African farmer-led businesses and SMEs
PAFO-COLEACP Innovation Series – First online meeting: took place the 19th November 2020.
To improve production, processing and trade, it is critical to assess, showcase and upscale existing innovations created or adopted by farmers’ organisations and SMEs.
This first session of the Innovation Series has presented successful African cooperatives, SMEs and enterprises on value-added and branded products that can increase opportunities in more lucrative markets. They discussed successful chain models and… +
European importers have taken delivery of the first trial shipments of Hass avocados from Ethiopia (EUROFRUIT, 26 October). Durabilis, the international impact investment firm behind the venture, described the news as “a game-changing milestone that demonstrates the huge potential for Ethiopian produce”. The fruit was grown in the Koga region, south of Bahir Dar, and shipped via the new Ethiopia-Djibouti-Europe cool logistics corridor, being transported first by train to the Port of Djibouti, then shipped to Italy and transported to… +
COLEACP is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Chagema Kedera as Programme Coordinator for the new EU-funded NExT Kenya (New Export Trade) programme.
Dr Kedera, formerly the founding Managing Director of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), currently facilitates the Kenya National Horticultural Task Force.
COLEACP has worked with Dr Kedera for many years: in the past he was Regional Coordinator with the EU-funded COLEACP-EDES Food Safety Programme, and more recently he has been a consultant expert working… +
“Linking With Agriculture for a More Sustainable Tourism Sector in Guyana beyond Covid” | 27 October 2020 – 09:30-11:30hrs (GYT)
Join Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Industry, Commerce & Tourism with COLEACP at the Virtual Tourism Forum on the theme: “Linking With Agriculture for a More Sustainable Tourism Sector in Guyana beyond Covid”. This event will discuss how the tourism and agriculture sectors, working together, can create an enabling environment that spurs investment by stakeholders… +
A mission is under way in Penja to support staff of the Penja Pepper Geographical Indication (GI) to create a database of all the main actors in the pepper production and distribution chain in the five production basins of the GI, as well as a census of these stakeholders in the field. This mission is part of the STDF/PG/593 project, which aims to contribute to improving the sanitary and phytosanitary quality of Penja pepper to facilitate its access to markets,… +
COLEACP is a partner in Madagascar’s 5th Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Initiatives Fair, from 22-23 October 2020, which will be on the theme “The world after #COVID: Sustainable Madagascar”.
Co-organised by Ur-CSR and BuyYourWay, under the patronage of the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Groupement des Entreprises de Madagascar, this year the fair will be exclusively #digital. The event is in the French language.
For more information on this annual meeting of actors committed and… +
As part of its Fit For Market programme, COLEACP supported Agricado Farms to improve their quality management system in order to reach compliance with the GLOBALG.A.P. quality standard. A local expert first assessed the current practices in place, and then provided training to their quality management team. Agricado Farms is on its way to reach compliance with the GLOBALG.A.P. quality standard. Agricado Farms, a new fresh fruits and vegetable company located in Kampala, targets the European and Middle Eastern markets… +
Fresh Salone – a Sierra Leonean fruit and vegetable production and export company, and COLEACP partner – has made its first shipment of habaneros and other ethnic vegetables (African eggplant, okra, leafy vegetables) to Brussels since the new European Directives came into force and flights were resumed post-COVID-19.
This success follows several COLEACP Fit For Market programme activities in recent months, including digital training for the private sector on identification and management of false codling moth (FCM) and whitefly; and… +
The deadline to receive the applications for this tender is Monday October 12th, 2020.… +
Virtual training on “Integrated management measures for false codling moth (Thaumatotibia leucotreta) control” is being provided for both private sector (managers of packaging stations/production) and public service (phytosanitary inspectors) through COLEACP’s two Fit For Market programmes.
30 participants from The Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are learning more about the new EU Plant Health Regulation regarding FCM; the use of FCM protocols along the value chain, including data-collection forms; the responsibilities of each player along the value chain towards FCM… +
Horticultural producer Aspire Cooperative in Zimbabwe enjoyed online coaching on implementing Covid-19 mitigation measures. Thanks to the e-coaching sessions, the director reported having a better understanding of how to handle food more safely in the context of Covid-19, leading to structural improvements in the company’s food safety management system.… +
The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in collaboration with COLEACP, organised a workshop in Accra on establishing and maintaining pest free areas for the production and export of curry leaves in Ghana. The workshop brought together officials from the Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association of Ghana (VEPEAG), Ministry of Trade and Industries, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, and the Directorate of Crop Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Other stakeholders also… +
A recent e-meeting with NPPOs focused on setting up an internal audit system, supported by COLEACP’s Fit For Market SPS programme. The internal audit system relates to support for the preparation and implementation of dossiers (systemic approaches) submitted to the EU’s DG SANTE, with regard to the requirements of the new EU Plant Health Regulation for control of quarantine pests on certain fruit and vegetables.
The meeting was attended by Directors and representatives of NPPOs from many countries including Benin,… +
As part of COLEACP’s Fit For Market programme, a Kenyan expert provided remote training to Africado, one of the biggest avocado producers in the north of Tanzania. The 5-day training on HACCP methodology, within the Food Safety and Hygiene theme, involved live-streamed sessions as well as regular homework for participants.… +
In the context of the COLEACP/Fit for Market (FFM SPS) : Strengthening sanitary and phytosanitary systems of the ACP horticultural sector, funded by the 11th European Development Fund, COLEACP is launching a new call for tenders concerning the provision of “Support to the COLEACP team for the implementation and monitoring of COLEACP programme activities in Ethiopia” ref. 201169. You will find here all information related to this service procurement notice, including the terms of reference (point 8. Objective, description and… +
The Kenya Flower Council, in collaboration with the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK), Fresh Produce Consortium Kenya (FPC-Kenya), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), and COLEACP’s Fit For Market SPS and NExT Kenya programmes have set up a series of regional training/sensitisation forums for all producers across the country, aiming at a common approach across the industry to help drastically reduce interceptions of false codling moth (FCM) on roses exported to… +