• Integrated pest management for beans and gherkins in Madagascar

    • 29/08/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    Integrated pest management for beans and gherkins in Madagascar   COLEAD is working with an exporting company based in Madagascar that is experiencing a drop in yields of green beans and gherkins due to heavy nematode pressure. This problem is since the same crops have been grown for several consecutive seasons without rotation or fallow periods, leading to a deterioration in soil quality. The company has begun to explore solutions, such as crop rotation with cover crops, which have shown… +
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  • Benin: new fruit wharf and wholesale market on the way

    • 29/08/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    Benin: new fruit wharf and wholesale market on the way   The Government of Benin, with the support of the World Bank, has launched the construction of a new fruit wharf at Cotonou International Airport. The Project to Support the Competitiveness of the Agricultural Sector and the Diversification of Exports (PACOFID) and the Société d’Infrastructures Routières et de l’Aménagement du Territoire (SIRAT) are the developers of this new facility, and the buildings are due to be delivered in September. The… +
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  • FFM+ supports GOPEX International NV on the path to Suriname’s first GLOBALG.A.P. Certification

    • 22/08/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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.… +
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  • Understanding the impact of trade-related capacity building interventions

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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  • Benin Senegal: an example of strengthening local expertise

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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  • Cameroon: towards a strategic plan for the Penja pepper IGP

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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)… +
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  • Technical resources for 27 educational institutions

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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  • Zimbabwe: “I’ve learnt a lot about training programmes”

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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  • Packaging : alternatives to plastic

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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  • Results of a GCFP survey

    • 19/07/2024
    • Posted by: Sandra Borma
    • Category: News
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    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… +
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