The Cotton and Cashew Council spoke with a delegation of American businessmen prospecting in Ivory Coast on Wednesday, March 27, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Abidjan Plateau.
Among the world's leading cashew nut producing countries, Côte d'Ivoire, which is in the process of industrialization with the cashew sector, needs secure outlets and above all large consumers of this product, hence this meeting with these men and American businesswomen with a view to learning about the new provisions of the law on food safety in the United States and the experience of the cashew sector.
Indeed, Bob Bauer, president of association of food industry (Afi) or president of the Association of food manufacturers and Ms. Jeannie Shaughnessy, president of the association of peanut and tree nut processors, or president of association peanut and tree nut processors (Ptnpa), stressed that to conquer the American market, it is necessary to respect the quality of the products to be marketed, to respect health standards from production to marketing. To achieve this, you also need documentation that will allow you to follow the process. This is why they invite Ivorian players to adapt to the conditions of access to the American market .
For the Director General of the Cotton and Cashew Council, Dr Adama Coulibaly, the United States is the largest consumer of cashew fines. “We cannot not court this market. To do this, we need lobbying which consists of having the crowned heads of American industry to facilitate our access to this market,” he explained, emphasizing the country is ready to respect the conditions of access to this market.
“For three years we have undertaken the certification of all the units with an American firm. A year and a half ago, 9 units were certified out of the 13 that were in the first batch,” he recalled. For him, this process is supposed to continue, because next May, this firm will return not only to reinforce the units already certified but above all to extend the list of units to be certified. “In total, we want to achieve a country certification, a labeling such that, when we hear fine origin from Côte d'Ivoire, that it rhymes with quality,” suggests Dr Adama Coulibaly.
According to him, the government is part of a global policy of structural change in the Ivorian economy, the objective of which is to move from the status of an agricultural power to that of an agro-industrial power. “The cashew sector is not on the sidelines of this process and it has begun its industrial development thanks to strong measures taken by the government. These provisions have allowed Côte d'Ivoire to become in a few years the third largest processor of cashew nuts in the world and the second largest supplier of fines in the world,” he says.
“Knowledge and our adaptation to the conditions of access to large markets like the United States, becomes a necessity. Aware of the challenges represented by access to major consumer markets, the Cotton and Cashew Council has initiated a program to promote Ivory Coast origin,” explains Dr Adama Coulibaly.
But first, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Côte d'Ivoire, Touré Faman, indicated that his institution played a leading role in the cashew sector in Côte d'Ivoire. “You know that one of our missions is to support businesses, to accompany them, to assist them and to ensure that business leaders respect a certain number of standards before going outside to regarding exports, and also at the local level, having good production,” underlined the president of the Cci-Ci.
For him, today's meeting is the result obtained by private sector actors who have ensured that the country is on a certain scale internationally. According to him, when we talk about producer and marketing, it is the private sector. “We are delighted with the performances that have been obtained and that everyone has understood that for us to be able to export we must respect the standards both in production and in processing and even in distribution,” said rejoiced Touré Faman.