News - Jul 22, 2019

TV show at RTI in Ivory Coast "Made in Africa: Organic agriculture, a growing market in Africa?" with Benjamin Garnier

According to the Agence Bio, the global organic food market has been multiplied by six in 16 years, reaching 80.2 billion euros in 2015 and covering 57.8 million hectares in 2016

In Africa, certified organic agriculture covers 1.8 million hectares, but only 0.2% of cultivated land on the continent (according to IFOAM and FiBL).

In Côte d'Ivoire initiatives are multiplying (50000 hectares in Bio according to FiBL) where there is a real potential due to changes in local and international ways of consumption but the supply is struggling to take off (only 1000 tons of organic cocoa in 2018, less than 0.1% of national production).

As the TV show explains, an Ivorian farmer who converts to Organic Farming takes significant risks in an immature socio-economic environment. To contribute to the emergence of Organic Agriculture, our actions (see our references here) contribute:

to conduct research/action to create knowledge, know-how and resources on the agro technical management adapted to the organic standard
to develop financing solutions for organic conversion to cover additional costs, potential yield reductions and technical and market risk-taking
to develop bio-inputs and their accessibility (availability, knowledge, use...)
to promote and search for business opportunities to make themselves known on the markets, particularly to the EU and USA markets (the biggests current organic markets)
to support the creation of National Organic Agencies and their credibility vis-à-vis the public authorities but also professionals in the agri-food sector like Symabio (Madagascar), CNAbio (Burkina-Faso), FENAB (Senegal) and PABE (Benin)