CONAKRY-Exporter la baroness, a species of pineapple grown exclusively in Guinea, is the ambition nurtured by those responsible for the Pineapple Sector Relaunch project (REFILA). To win the bet, ITC (International Trade Center), partner of UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) responsible for implementing this project funded by the European Union, started this Monday, May 16, 2022 in Conakry a training which will extend over four days. The beneficiaries of this training workshop, which is part of the West Africa Competitiveness Program (WACOMP), are producers, processors and exporters of pineapple, a fruit grown largely in Kindia region.
To make the Baroness of Guinea known at fairs and other large-scale events, several players in the pineapple sector follow training focused on marketing, preparation for fairs and export price construction. The initiative delights Koumadjan Camara, coordinator of the Pineapple Sector Relaunch project (REFILA), in more ways than one.
“This is a great opportunity for producers and for the whole country. We are marketing our king of fruits, the Baroness of Guinea, which we want to position on sub-regional and international markets. It is a training of paramount importance because it is a question of showing our growers how we arrive at the fixing of the export price. It also allows them to earn money because they will know what they have invested and what they need to get back. Training is of paramount importance for the entire value chain,” he said.
As a trainer, Abdelbasset Boulelouah, expert in marketing, branding, e-commerce brand image at the International Trade Center (ITC) recalled that Guinea has a variety of pineapples unique in the world. And for its promotion, it is necessary that the Guinean identity be recognized on the international channel. This necessarily involves mastering marketing tools and export pricing, he argues. Hence their contribution to the actors concerned.
“Guinea has major assets. She has a variety of pineapple called Baroness. So, there are works to recognize the baroness as a protected geographical indication. It is a unique variety in the world, it is found only in Guinea. As part of this REFILA project, we are supporting players in the sector to export pineapple from Guinea and penetrate European markets or those of the Maghreb such as Morocco. We at ITC do market research, we explain to them the opportunities that exist in foreign markets, how to sell in these markets, the quality standards they must meet and then how to set the export price,” he said. -he says.
Beneficiary of this training, which she deems appropriate, Fatoumata Cissoko, manager of a company specializing in agro-food processing, now intends to put into practice the knowledge received. This, to contribute to the promotion of the Baroness of Guinea.
“Today, this workshop allows us to fix the export prices of pineapples but also to know the realities of the market. This opportunity should be seized by all producers and processors because we have another visibility of the market that our pineapple demands and that we must supply very soon. We knew the price on the local market but this was not the case internationally. You have to be informed for that. From now on, we are going to work on how to fix the price and approach the export markets”, hinted Fatoumata Cissoko.
It should be remembered that thanks to the project to revive the pineapple sector (REFILA), after two years, production has increased from 30 tonnes per hectare to 55 tonnes per hectare. Added to this is the significant increase in the number of growers.
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