Ivory Coast – The necessary marketing of red oilI
Ivory Coast
Palm oil is easily the most consumed oil in Ivory Coast and throughout West Africa. Despite this, the sector is facing challenges of sustainability and certification that are required by the multination food companies who want to increase their consumption by 2020-2025.
This year, Ivory Coast is estimated to harvest around 2.3 million tons (Mt) of palm kernels, from which it will produce more than 500,000 tons of crude palm oil, according to Abdoulaye Berte, Executive Secretary of l’Association interprofessionnelle de la filière palmier à huile de Côte d’Ivoire (AIPH). This makes the Ivory Coast Africa’s second largest producer of palm oil, second only to Nigeria. Their production methods are still dwarfed by their Asian counterparts. In Ivory Coast, some 60 to 65% of its production comes from small holder farmers who plant 175 000 hectares of palm groves, whereas in Malaysia and Asia they have vast palm grove plantations as far as the eye can see.
Promoting red oil
Two-thirds of Ivorian production is used locally in the form of oil and margarine, but also soap and cosmetics, a third of which is exported to other West African countries. Palm oil is far cheaper than groundnut oil and is therefore sold into Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Togo and Nigeria. The oil marketed in both the Ivorian and regional markets is refined.
‘Unfortunately, red, unrefined palm oil, which is rich in antioxidants and nutrients is consumed primarily for traditional means or for traditional meals, so it is difficult to quantify its consumption.» Abdoulaye Berte added: ‘But, we must promote the qualities of this unrefined red oil because the irony is that we have to add vitamins to the refined palm oil, whereas we would not need to do that if we consumed the red oil as these vitamins occur naturally.’
As palm oil is produced and consumed locally and regionally, would Ivory Coast palm oil be sheltered from global controversies related to the environment and health? ‘In no way,’ retorts the executive secretary. «First of all, the Ivorian Industry is, like everywhere else, concerned by global and environmental issues. However, at the moment Ivorian oil is only being sold locally, so our short to medium term goal is to position ourselves well in these local markets and meet their requirements. Thirdly, the locally established agro- food multinationals (Nestlé, Unilever, etc.) demand certified palm oil by 2020-2025, and we will be in a
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BURKINA FASOFree fall of palm oil importsThe palm oil market in Burkina Faso has undergone a free fall in 2017 compared to 2016. According to the Department of Customs, 31 567 276 litres of palm oil representing a custom value of FCFA 23 592 092 895 (€ 35,8 millions) were imported in 2016 as against 10 501 778 litres for FCFA 16 706 315 770 (€ 25,4 millions) in 2017, down some 33%. Yet, between 2015 and 2016, the country had registered a major increase of 109% of its palm oil imports, the volume imported in 2015 being 28 934 913 litres for a value of FCFA 14 819 573 228 (€ 22,5 millions). One of the reasons of this drop in imports is the government’s commitment to support the palm oil sector by buying to Sonagess (Société nationale de gestion des stocks de sécurité) for specific stores and school canteens, as well as the favourable positioning of soy oil produced by SIATOL (Société industrielle de l’agroalimentaire pour la transformation des oléagineux). Côte d’Ivoire remains, by far, the n°1 supplier to Burkina Faso, followed by Togo and Malaysia.
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The most important companies that import, accordingto the Direction des Guichets uniques du commerce et de l’investissement, are as follows.
Dieudonné Edouard Sango
