Cracking the nut of self-sufficiency

Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s top producer of cocoa and a global exporter of cashews. Agriculture generates over 20 percent of the country’s GDP and is the primary source of income for two-thirds of households nationwide. Yet Côte d’Ivoire processes barely any of its own agricultural products, relying instead on mountains of highly expensive imports – the very definition of “unsustainable”. 

Looking to the future, the OPEC Fund recently signed a US$60 million loan in support of Côte d’Ivoire’s Northern Agro-Industrial Pole Project (2PAI-Nord). As the second of 9 planned “agricultural development poles” outlined in Côte d’Ivoire’s National Development Plan, the project will support 65,000 farming households, covering 400,000 people, including women and youth who often struggle to reach markets. The project is also investing in farmers’ access to markets, which will improve road and social infrastructure used by up to 1.2 million people across the northern and neighboring regions. 

Attracting more and more private investment for processing rice, meat, fish, cashews, mango and shea, the project will cut dependency on agricultural imports in the four northern provinces of Bagoué, Hambol, Poro and Tchologo. Co-financed with, among others, the AfDB, the total project cost stands at just over US$280 million. 

Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Côte d’Ivoire 

OPEC Fund Quarterly: How will the 2 PAI-Nord project help Côte d’Ivoire to modernize and professionalize its agriculture sector, while maximizing added value for the broader economy? 

Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani: The 2-PAI Nord project is laying the foundations to transform agriculture in the northern region of Côte d’Ivoire. We aim to modernize work practices, improve communication and involve more private sector actors within the broader context of agricultural industrialization. 

As it develops, the project will attract infrastructure investments that are crucial for reducing waste and losses while accelerating the distribution of products in markets operating at local, regional and even international levels. 

The project’s holistic approach will enable more efficient and inclusive contracting between all stakeholders via the smoother functioning and transparency of markets and via greater accessibility to goods and services. These important aspects will be supported by a regulatory framework that is more conducive to contracting and more respectful to the rights of farmers, while firmly establishing social, health and – above all – environmental standards. 

OFQ: How will you ensure greater sustainability and socio-economic inclusion of the local population, while preparing for climate change? 

KKA: The project was set up in a spirit of inclusiveness to ensure a sense of ownership among the various beneficiaries. The sustainability of the project rests on the latest climate adaptation measures, based on innovative technologies that contribute to resilience. It will also rely on improved access to agricultural insurance and on sharing or raising awareness of climate information that is relevant to agriculture. 

The value chain approach will enable the integration of all sectors, smoothing relations between the actors that operate in the area. It will facilitate access to financial and non-financial services, while rolling out high-quality services on a new digital platform. 

The effective involvement of the local private sector, including young entrepreneurs, will also be crucial for the viability of the project within increasingly competitive markets. 

OFQ: How will the project help your country to become more self-sufficient, especially in terms of food imports? 

KKA: In terms of crops, the project will mainly target essential staples, which are a priority for attaining food security. But we aim to go beyond that in the long term: because food security and self-sufficiency are not the same as food sovereignty. 

The project will mainly focus on the production and processing of rice, maize and vegetables. But we will also discuss animal products and involve different ministries because that is a sector in which we struggle at present. Once we overcome those hurdles we will be able to speak in more detail about food sovereignty. 

Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank 

OPEC Fund Quarterly: How do special economic zones help improve flows of private capital for climate and development projects? 

Akinwumi Adesina: Africa has a lot of wealth, but it’s not able to unlock that wealth. And if there’s a wealth that it has, it’s in agriculture. That’s why the AfDB has been investing in so many special agro-industrial zones, completely dedicated to agriculture. Africa has 65 percent of the uncultivated or yet to be cultivated arable land in the world, so what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world – including feeding up to 9 billion people by 2050. But for that to happen, rural areas need to have reliable infrastructure. 

Rural areas need irrigation, logistics and transport; they need companies and the private sector coming in to process and add value to food; and they need efficient value chains to help Africa compete in local, regional and global markets. Achieving all that will create countless jobs while also reducing rural to urban migration. That’s why we’ve put in almost US$870 million to develop these special economic zones in various nations across Africa. We’ve mobilized over US$650 million of co-financing and one of our great partners in this endeavor is the OPEC Fund for International Development. 

The advantage of special agro-industrial processing zones is that they combine private capital with specialists in food processing, who are able to produce and package the food efficiently. We then work with organizations including the OPEC Fund to support long-term structured supply contracts, taking finished food from Africa to Gulf countries in particular. We’re currently investing in 25 of these special economic zones, which are fueling structural change across Africa.  

Quick facts 

• In 2023 there were only 30 processing units nationally to deal with 180,000 tonnes of mango, so wastage has been a major problem
• Côte d’Ivoire imports mainly whole frozen fish from West Africa, Europe and Asia, including small pelagic species and tunas 
• Between 2013 and 2021, cashew production more than doubled, from 460,000 tonnes to 1.1 million tonnes 
• Côte d’Ivoire is home to AfricaRice's research complex with farms, laboratories and a rice genebank – dedicated to research into rice production systems 
• Beef is the second-most popular source of animal protein after fish in the country