The Africa Report, October 2015

72 DOSSIER AGRIBUSINESS Senegal gets Fertile and politically stable, hen Jean-Marie ded value. They really loved the Goudiaby stood product,” he says of the company Senegal is beginning to compete in a Waitrose that now distributes his onions. with Egypt and South Africa to supermarket in “It was new and original.” export fresh fruit and vegetables Britain in 2009 Goudiaby is part of a move- Wand sawhis test-runorganic sweet ment that is beginning to sweep to European markets. The onions for sale for £1 ($1.50) each, Senegal. Companies are position- government is also developing a it confirmed that his dream of ing themselves to be suppliers of becoming an exporter of high- fruit and vegetables to European major rice production centre quality niche vegetables from his markets. Ranging from small- around the Senegal River nativeSenegalcould become real- scale farms such as Goudiaby’s ity. “£1 is the price of one kilo of 50ha to the French-owned 300ha the same onions in Senegal,” he Grands Domaines du Sénégal By Rose Skelton in Saint-Louis says. “When you are exporting to farm, Senegal’s fertile land, good the European Union, the product climate, abundant reserves of wa- has to be innovative and have ad- ter and its proximity to Europe are THE AFRICA REPORT • N° 74 • OCTOBER 2015 Red onion producers in the Senegal River valley bag up their goods s growing ROSE SKELTON FOR TAR making it an economical and at- Goudiaby,whose sister Yolande across the flat landscape, Yolande tractive alternative to agriculture- does the manual work on part of and her sole helper digtrenches in exportingcountries such as Egypt, their 50ha parcel in the sandy thesandsothatwaterpumpedfrom Kenya and South Africa. north of the country near the city atributaryoftheSenegalriverfeeds $59m of Saint-Louis, says that although into the crop beds. Red onions, a SAFE TO INVEST Value of northern Senegal is arid, it has a favourite on the local market and Stability is alsoamajor considera- Senegal’s good climate for farming. With a staple of Senegalese cuisine, are tion for investors,says Juan Carlos global Senegal’s tropical southern re- the main crop.TheGoudiabyfarm Leon, sourcing and business de- vegetable gion – Casamance – caught in a also produces sweet onions, del- velopment director at Barfoots of exports in long-running but low-level civil icata squash, salad leaves, herbs Botley, a UK-based grower of pro- 2014, up conflict, investing in a farm there and red chillies. It has a buyer for duce in Senegal. “We invested in from $24.9m did not make sense, says Jean- fresh black beans in Italy and is Senegalbecause it is astable coun- in 2010 Marie, even though the Goudiaby experimenting with grapes in the tryin West Africa. Despite the gov- siblings are natives of that region. hope of being able to supply the ernment change [in 2012], there Under ascorchingsunand blas- local market, which currently im- were no issueswith the transition.” tedby the hot winds that draw sand ports grapes from South Africa. THE AFRICA REPORT • N° 74 • OCTOBER 2015 74 DOSSIER | AGRIBUSINESS “[Our grapes] would be more af- also buy locally produced rice, fordable,” says Jean-Marie,who has MAURITANIA although at the moment Senegal ambitions of joining the Lebanese Saint-Louis does not produce enough to make and Guinean fruit traders in sup- distributers buy equal amounts. plying the local market with these Senegal currently imports fruit. “We Senegalese are new in Bakel low-quality, cheap rice from Asia this business,” he adds. Dakar that consumers generally prefer The Goudiaby siblings aim SENEGAL to the locally produced rice. The to farm the entirety of the 50ha SAED is building25 rice transform- that they own, but problems with ation centres to produce better- crop-destroyinginsects and chilli- quality rice. It should be possible eating monkeys have held them GAMBIA to sell local rice cheaper than im- back.Jean-Marie’s goal,however, is ported rice, says the SAED, but to organise the many smallholder both local and imported sell at farmers in northern Senegal. They GUINEA-BISSAU 300 CFAfrancs ($0.51) perkilo.It is could form a collective to supply GUINEA not clear howthe government and the European market and take a Atlantic Ocean 100 km other producers will convince the sharein asectorcurrently domin- consumer to buy local rice unless atedby foreign-ownedcompanies. they can lower the price. “The idea is to bring business to Around the smallholders,” he says. two-thirds ONION GLUT ScatteredthroughouttheSenegal Senegal’s agricultural drive is cre- River Valley, where the Goudiaby of the workforce ating both winners and losers. siblingshave startedtheir farm, are are employed Carrying a dusty backpack and the roofs ofhuge coveredfarms for in agriculture hitchhiking south from Saint- companiessuchasBarfoots, which, Louis, onion farmer Assane Sow inpartnershipwiththeSenegalese- Some 17% takes outahandful of tomatoseed owned Société de Cultures packets that he hopes will provide of Senegal’s GDP Légumières, produces sweetcorn, an income to help his wife and sweetpotatoes, asparagus, chillies comes from the three children. “There is over- and beans on 2,000ha. Senegal’s agriculture sector production of onions on the local hot and dryweather, says Barfoot’s market,” he explains,“soIdecided Leon, “allows us to produce at key to stop farming onions.” Groundnut production times of the year. This is when the In 2014, says Sow, he could sell cropfromthenorthernhemisphere takes up around 40% TURALIST akilo ofonions for 300 CFAfrancs. comes to an end and the new crop But now, with foreign onion im- of agricultural land, while AGRICUL from the southern hemisphere is ports frozen to encourage local not quite ready, and vice versa.” 33% NEW production, a kilo of onions sells With this advantage, Senegal’s is devoted to cotton. SOURCE: for just 100 CFA francs. “It’s the global vegetable exports grew government plan that is mak- in value from $24.9m in 2010 to roads and irrigation infrastructure ing us suffer,” he says. “You see $59.1m in 2014, according to data in the region. This valley is key to people who have no experience from the UN Comtrade database. itsgoalof achievingself-sufficiency in farming, or people who were in rice production by 2017. previously growing potatoes, now GOVERNMENT RICE DRIVE Seyni Ndao, the deputy CEO of growing onions. Last year, the It is not just private investors who the government-run Société Na- price was so good that now every- make up this new wave of grow- tionale d’Aménagement et d’Ex- one is growing onions.” ers. A few dozen kilometres from ploitation des Terres du Delta du 1.08m Jean-Marie Goudiaby,who also the Goudiaby farm, bright green Fleuve Sénégal (SAED), explains: tonnes of supplies the local market with rice fields stretch out along the “By 2017, our objective is to pro- rice a year onions, argues that this is just a horizon, where workers are bent duce 1.08m tonnes of white rice by 2017 momentaryblip.Despite the chal- low to the ground. Donkey carts a year. From Saint-Louis to Bakel, is the lenges,he holdson to the memory rattle along dirt tracks that separ- we are developing infrastructure, production of the momenthis UK distributers ate the smallholder paddy fields machinery, storage units, irriga- target for received their first shipment of alongtheSenegalRiver. Irrigation tion and drainage.” the Senegal organic sweet Senegalese onions. channels and dams stretch from The government is keen to cut River project “They were looking on the map at the river and its snaking tributar- down on the costlyimportation of Senegal,” he says, smiling. “They ies, feeding the 60,612ha that the rice. It subsidises 40% of the cost were thrilled: six days from Dakar government has set aside for rice of fertilisers and pays up to 60% of to Dover and a low-cost produc- production. Thegovernmentused thecostof machineryforrice pro- tion. We need business here,” he a grant from the US Millennium ducers.Importersofforeign-grown says. “And the more business we Challenge Corporation to build rice are contractually obliged to have, the better.” ● THE AFRICA REPORT • N° 74 • OCTOBER 2015.

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