In the commune of Allada, the pineapple capital of Benin, a large pineapple processing company called Promo Fruits Benin has been established. Nominated for 2010 Grand Oscar for innovation, this agri-food company performs enormous wonders in the processing of fruit and its marketing beyond the continental borders. An innovative idea that draws attention and encourages the promotion of the sector.
Pineapple is the third largest potential export sector after cotton and cashew nuts, and is one of the 13 priority agricultural sectors that the Beninese government is seeking to develop with the support of technical and financial partners. Its growth helps to improve the income of the rural working population. It is produced exclusively in the south of the country.
Located in Allada in the Atlantic department, Sarl Promo Fruits Benin is a unit that processes pineapples into fruit juices that can be consumed at any age. Originally, this company is an association of pineapple producers who, in 2010, decided to organise themselves to create Promo Fruits Benin in order to be more competitive on the market.
IRA, certified juice
IRA fruit juices are produced under the most hygienic conditions. It is indeed one of the most certified food brands in Benin. The company has a number of approvals and certificates that attest the quality of its products. Certified ISO 22000, Promo Fruits Benin also has a marketing certificate issued by the Benin Food Safety Agency (ABSSA). Controlled and certified by Food and Applied Nutrition Direction (Dana), it has also obtained UEMOA and ECOWAS approvals, not to mention Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).
For Dieudonné Alladjodjo, General Manager of Promo Fruits Benin, these certificates bring added value to the company’s production. “These certificates give more credibility to what we do. Since consumers can’t go and see the conditions of production, these approvals issued at local, sub-regional and international levels allow the consumer to be sure of the good quality of the product they are consuming,” he said.
He also reassures that IRA juices are produced without adding water, sugar, colouring or preservatives. So they are 100% natural, it is only the pasteurisation that allows the juice to preserve itself. In addition, Promo Fruits Benin uses all types of pineapple for processing, especially the sugar loaf and smooth Cayenne species.
Promo Fruits Benin comes to the rescue of pineapple producers
With a processing capacity of fifty tons of pineapple into pure juice per day, the members of this cooperative are exclusively producers. “The shareholder base is made up entirely of producers,” the Director said. And since over the years the shareholder’s production no longer meets market needs, the scope was extended to all pineapple producers. “Today we collect raw material from a collective of 2,880 farmers,” he says, before adding that the very objective of the organisation is to be able to create a remunerative sales market for the production of its members and for all producers in general.
This is a commendable initiative based on the observation that farmers produce but often do not have a stable and reliable market. In view of this risk, which jeopardises the development of the sector, processing and preservation are the only safe alternative for safeguarding farmers’ yields. This is in line with the government’s ambition to process 50% of pineapple production locally.
A factory complex to provide jobs
In addition to helping pineapple growers find a market, Promo Fruits Benin creates many jobs. According to its General Director, “To date, we employ 168 people declared to the National Social Security Fund (CNSS). Thus, these young employees are divided between administration, technology, production and marketing. A capital sum that reduces the number of unemployed in the country. The market is very large as IRA products cover the sub-region and even internationally. Much further afield, wholesalers at all levels are certainly taking advantage of this to boost their turnover. Promo Fruits Benin is an important source of income for the local population of Allada, which provides 97% of Benin’s pineapple production.
Supply difficulties
With Promo Fruits Benin about 50 tons of pineapples are processed per day. And sometimes there is a problem of supply disruption. Thus, sometimes the factory is desperately in short of raw materials. This difficulty is often due to delayed rains and drought as our agriculture is highly dependent on climate change. In this case, the company suffers the same inconvenience as farmers.
This state of affairs is already leading the Promo Fruits Benin management team to reflect on new strategies such as plantation irrigation in order to be prepared for these eventualities.
Beninese policies and the promotion of the pineapple sector
Although many people are still ignorant about it, the production, processing and marketing of pineapples is an essential aspect of local development and the growth of the Beninese economy. This is why the government has put in place a special policy for the supervision of the sector. On 19 January 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries hosted the subsidy agreement between Enabel and the National Fund for Agricultural Development (FNDA) for the pineapple sector entrepreneurship development programme (DEFIA).
The objective of this programme was to contribute to the creation of decent and sustainable jobs, to increase the income of economic actors and households and to improve Benin’s macro-economic balances. The total amount of the subsidy granted by Enabel is a maximum of 1,199,514 Euros. It should be noted that this programme is scheduled to last 29 months and will take into account 34 producers involved in the pineapple sector, including 19 processors, 8 suppliers and 10 exporters.
Similarly, the government is committed to making the sector a priority because its contribution to GDP is not negligible. Pineapple is therefore one of the priority sectors of pole 7 on which the government is betting to boost the agricultural sector, the GDP and job creation.
