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foto Colruyt Promotion of the rice value chain in Benin Cooperation between Beninese farmers’ organisations, the Belgian retailer Colruyt and the NGO Vredeseilanden/VECO Full case study September 2011 - www.veco-ngo.org 6 7 Bernd Fink 1. Introduction beneficial for domestic food supply, and have enough rice to eat every day.’ generate higher incomes for the rice farm- Click here to view the video clip In August 2010, 24 tonnes of Fair Trade rice ers and their families. In order to compete from Beninese smallholder farmers’ organisa- with cheap Asian rice, the quality of the rice Mieke Vercaeren, Colruyt: tions were exported to the Belgian retailer, really needed upgrading. This was quite a ‘The moment we went to Colruyt. This boosted the quality of local challenge. Before the start of the project, the stores to show the rice production and processing, and shows farmers had little experience with rice grow- Beninese farmers’ lead- good potential for improved sales in local ing, let alone with the quality standards of ers that their product was markets in Benin. modern markets. From the very start, we effectively present on aimed at exporting a symbolic quantity to the shelves, a thrill went ‘We made contact with the Belgian NGO Belgium. So there is still a long way to go, through the people present. It was amaz- Vredeseilanden/VECO, through a project with lots of trail and errors, but with nice, ing to be part of their pride; the proof of on teakwood in Indonesia’, says Koen De motivating perspectives.’ their hard work was right there in front of Maesschalck, who was responsible within their eyes. They spoke to the customers in Colruyt for public relations and CSR at Dènanssé Dossou, a female member of the store with great enthusiasm, convinc- the time the rice project started in Benin. the AYIDOTE group of the Kpataba farm- ing them to buy the rice; with an irresist- ‘We wanted to learn more from each other, ers’ organization: ible smile, they put in the packets of rice and found a new opportunity in Benin to ‘In my family we only eat rice we grow our- into their trolleys, telling them how good set up a joint partnership with the Beninese selves. In this village, it is rare to find peo- the rice was.’ farmers’ organisations. They wanted to pro- ple who still eat any imported rice. About duce and sell better quality rice and VECO ten years ago, before New Year celebrations, Léopold Lokossou, chair- was looking for an experienced partner vans used to arrive and unload imported rice person of the national to co-facilitate this process. And Colruyt bought to feed our the village. But for the farmers’ organization of wanted to explore how to improve sustain- last two years, not a single bag of imported Benin: ‘This project proves ability in our purchasing practice. We dis- rice has been brought to the village for the that small-scale family covered that we not only provide expertise New Year holidays, because we all eat our farming has a future in and finance, we also opened the doors of local rice. Eating rice is no longer reserved Benin, and that we can our company, i.e. by welcoming two persons for special holidays like it used to be. Rice improve the sustainability though practice. from Benin for an internship.’ is well established in our daily diet. And In the long term, Benin definitely will be with the experience of Fair Trade, we now able to produce sufficient rice for its domes- Mieke Lateir, Sustainable eat very good quality rice.’ tic consumption. This is how we want to Agriculture Chain overcome poverty. There used to be a wide Development Specialist, Franck Todekin, secretary gap between investment and production. VECO: general of the Kpataba Thanks to this project, farmers’ investments ‘Together with Colruyt, farmers’ organization: are now more profitable. I want to thank the we examined how to ‘We used to eat rice once Colruyt Group for their efforts.’ strengthen the farmers’ organisations and a year, on New Year’s day. how to improve the quality of their rice. Now every day is like a cel- Higher yields and better quality rice are ebration! Our children now 8 2. The start of Box 1: Brief presentation of Vredeseilanden/VECO the VECO rice Vredeseilanden is a Belgian-based, interna- research institutes, government agencies and tional NGO with 40 years’ experience in sus- private sector actors (traders, processors, programme in tainable agricultural development, renowned retailers) in 20 different countries. for its expertise in sustainable farming prac- We play a facilitating role among the rele- Benin. tice and efforts to strengthen farmers’ organi- vant stakeholders to develop shared strate- sations. We support our partner organisations gies, based on close analysis and monitoring VECO is a leading sustainable agricultural through 8 VredesEilanden Country Offices of markets and bottlenecks. The aim is to development organization with a long his- (VECOs). That is why, outside Belgium, the improve functioning and increase benefits tory of working in the field with farmers to organisation is mainly known as VECO. to all parties within each chain – especially improve livelihoods. Over the last five years VECO’s main focus today is on developing to improve the livelihoods of farmers – and we have come to recognise the importance sustainable agricultural chains, from local to beyond the chain, to create a more enabling of investing in farmers in ways that directly international levels. We conduct programmes environment. support their connection to markets. We through seven regional offices, in partner- have found that partnering with the private ship with organized farmers’ groups, NGOs, sector is an excellent way to optimise our impact and increase the likely sustainability of farmers’ gains. agricultural inputs and investing in pro- for investment in improving the quality of cessing, quality enhancement and market- the crop. The objective of this programme is to rein- ing. The programme started in 2002 in the force the capacities of rice farmers and central département of Collines, in Benin. In the first 2 years of the project, 2002-3, their organisations so that they can pro- 90% of the population in this area is active VECO focused on improving product quality duce quality rice that is able to compete in agriculture on small-scale family farms, and establishing an internal quality control with imported Asian rice that looks attrac- with plots that are between 0.5 ha and 1.5 system. Challenges in this period led VECO tive and appeals in Benin. The intention is ha per family. These families earn an aver- to requesting funding and technical support also to increase farmers’ income through age of less than one dollar a day. In this from the Belgian supermarket, Colruyt. In improved access to modern, dynamic mar- area, rice farmers have traditionally deliv- 2003, the first steps were taken to improve kets. Stimulating local production and the ered their produce individually to local trad- the quality of the rice with farmers’ groups introduction of an effective local value chain ers. Wholesale traders from the markets of in the Municipality of Savalou. They began helps to anticipate future food crises and Glazoué, Savalou and Anié (Togo) travelled by doing visual quality checks and establish- contribute to poverty reduction. from village to village to collect the stocks of ing a simple traceability system by writing paddy rice. The traders dictated the selling the producer’s name on each bag of rice. The The VECO programme is about improving price, and farmers had little or no negotiat- Tchetti farmers’ groups’ quality improvement production methods, improving access to ing power. There was little market incentive and marketing experiments with rice had an Chris Claes 8 9 initially difficult start-up during the first two years. This improved when VECO and the Belgian supermarket chain, Colruyt, invested more funding to improve the implementa- tion of the action plan with the Tchetti farm- ers’ group. In 2004-2005, the programme accelerated, and expanded into three other municipal- ities1, also in the Collines département. Cooperation was also initiated between the various farmers’ groups within the munici- palities. In 2005, 5,000 rice farmers were involved in the programme. By 2009, there were 8,500, spread across five municipalities in the Collines département. In 2005, farm- ers owned a total of 832 ha of rice land; by 2009 that had grown to 9,500 ha, as more rice farmers joined the programme and also as a result of the programme’s interventions. The average productivity per hectare rose from 2 tonnes/ha in 2003 to 3.3 tonnes/ Jelle Goossens ha in 2009. Box 2: The importance of rice for Benin Benin does not have a long tradition of rice potentially irrigated plains6. Currently, only and has won Beninese consumer preference. growing compared with other West African 33,294 ha of this potential rice-growing land Because Japanese rice is imported as food aid, countries. is used (see Annex 1). This would enable the it also constitutes unfair competition9. The Until 1995, it produced no more than 20,000 country to cover 70% of national rice consump- import and export figures for rice show a dis- tonnes of rice per year, and rice was eaten only tion within a few years - presently this stands torted picture of the situation in Benin unless on holidays or at special ceremonies. Over the at 34%. The Benin government even hopes to they are adjusted to take the large volumes past two decades, it has become one of the export a rice surplus to other countries in the into account that are imported from Asia and most important staple foods, thanks in part West African region.

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