BANANAS make up the lion’s share of the country’s exports to the European Union, with 205,500 tonnes out of more than 350,000t exported in 2003, cLosely followed by pineapples and mangoes.
The Côte d’Ivoire is one of the largest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its economy, however, remains largely based on the agricultural sector, which employs some two-thirds of the labour force and represents 70 per cent of the country’s export earnings.
The production of staple foods such as cereals, tubers, and other root crops accounts for a large part of the country’s agriculture production, but these are largely for domestic consumption. Other crops such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, rubber, bananas, and pineapples constitute the country’s main foreign exchange earners and fare rather well on the world stage.
And with declining prices for cocoa and coffee, fruit production, particularly banana production, remains important for local employment and income.
Producers in the Côte d’Ivoire are typically organised within cooperatives which collect the produce, forward it to packing stations and transport it to local or international markets. The Organisation of Pineapple and Banana Producers and Exporters (OCAB) gathers Ivorian pineapple, mango and banana producers, defends their interests and monitors quality control and sea-freighting to Europe.
Bananas, pineapples, and mangoes are the Côte d’Ivoire’s most important exports of fruits and vegetables to the European Union. In fact, the country is the leading ACP (African, Caribbean, Pacific) exporter of pineapples and mangoes to the EU and the second biggest exporter of bananas after Cameroon. Most exports go to France, Belgium, Germany and the UK.
The Ivorian banana industry is dominated by two large multinationals, the SCB (Société de Culture Bananière) and Banador, subsidiaries of the Dole and Chiquita corporations respectively, which account for 83 per cent of total production.
Less concentrated, but nonetheless dominated by a handful of producers, 70 per cent of the country’s pineapple production is spread among nine producers. Since banana and pineapple plantations are located in the southern part of the country, and hence outside disputed areas, they did not bear the full brunt of the country’s political ills, but did not escape unscathed, however. Banana exports decreased by 2.5 per cent in 2003 and pineapple exports declined by 15 per cent.
Political problems have severely diminished producers’ capacity to export quality mangoes to the outside world. Indeed, mango exports decreased by 35 per cent in 2003. This is due to the fact that the country’s mango production is located in the north, while the mangoes are freighted to Europe by sea from ports on the southern coast.
The numerous check points and road blocks between production areas in the north and export centres in the south Make the mango exporting process challenging. In Côte d’Ivoire mango production remains traditional and the fruits are usually grown on very small plots of land, but some large plantations are beginning to spring up.
In addition to political turmoil at home, the country is faced with a number of challenges from further afield. On the production side, Ivorian banana and pineapple producers are confronted with increasing competition from Central and South American growers.
It is also crunch time on the European market itself as regulations on food safety and quality are making exporting to Europe increasingly tough. Implementing traceability and other food safety standards can be very trying for many ACP producers. This is where PIP comes in.
Bringing horticulture up to speed with EU rules is the Pesticides Initiative Programme’s (PIP) prerogative. The programme provides technical support, on a cost-sharing basis, to help private producers meet food safety standards. Training is especially important in this respect as Charles Vallier, the production manager of Katopé Côte d’Ivoire (CI) - a subsidiary of Katopé International - points out. “Training our technical staff on the correct use of pesticides is important, not only because our products need to abide by the European MRLs [Maximum Residue Limits], but also to allow all our workers and associates to work in a safe environment. This is where PIP can help us.” No mean feat considering that the company employs, as many others in the country do, 400 to 500 daily workers in addition to its fifteen-strong permanent staff.
It is not only EU regulations that are imposing strict rules. Consumer pressure in Europe has forced importers to step up their own requirements of the safety and quality of the food they bring onto market. To this end, they are requesting that more and more ACP producers be accredited under recognised standards such as EurepGAP and BRC (British Retail Consortium). With the help of the PIP programme, ACP companies are implementing food safety and traceability systems that meet the requirements of both EU rules and private standards.
Aside from the political troubles and stricter food rules the country must overcome, the Ivorian horticulture industry has remarkable potential for further development. The country’s location close to EU markets as well as its extensive road network, its ample supply of agricultural land and support services provide the Côte d’Ivoire with undeniable benefits to move the sector forward.
Banana and pineapple will continue to be important crops for the country, but mangoes and emerging crops such as papaya are likely to play an increasingly role in the country’s exports of fresh fruits to the European Union in the future. Taking papaya as an example, it is important to note that papaya exports are inherently linked to that of bananas.
The two fruits are grown in the same regions and papaya is often grown in banana fields being fallowed. As papaya production becomes more industrial and as new varieties that can withstand shipment by sea are being developed, the fruit is likely to join the ranks of the country’s successful exports.
All in all, there is no reason to believe that the Côte d’Ivoire will forgo its role as the leading ACP exporter of fruits and vegetables to the EU.
PIP, PIP, HOORAY
Between November 2001 and June 2004, PIP experts carried out more than a dozen missions in the Côte d’Ivoire to present the programme, prepare crop protocol revisions, and implement action plans developed by programme beneficiaries that are trying to meet European product safety and traceability standards.
The vast majority of producers participating grow pineapples. This is due to the particularly worrisome social and economic situation of the Ivorian pineapple sector. Indeed, many small-scale growers operate in the sector and they will only retain a role in the export industry if they are able to adopt good agricultural practices.
To this end OCAB has put in place an emergency plan for the sector which is now complemented with PIP support. In total, 11 agreements have been signed so far between Ivorian producers, the sector’s support structures and COLEACP-PIP. Four applications are currently under review.
• The PIP was set up by COLEACP, the international network of professionals in the ACP-Europe horticultural industry, in collaboration with the EU, to help ACP horticulture cope with Europe’s changing food quality and safety regulations.
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