The Beninese Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Gaston Dossouhoui, officially launched the activities of the Project to Support the Competitiveness of Agricultural Sectors and Export Diversification (PACOFIDE) on Tuesday in Cotonou. The objective is to increase productivity and access to export markets for several agri-food value chains in Benin, including cashew nuts and pineapples

Financed by the World Bank, PACOFIDE aims, among other things, to improve Benin's trade balance and the net income of value chain actors from the sales of their products, as well as to increase the jobs created by actors involved in targeted value chains and Benin's tax revenues. Its implementation requires approximately 160 million USD, or about 94 billion CFA francs, financed by the World Bank

According to Gaston Dossouhoui, this project stems from a determined desire of the Beninese government to perpetuate the achievements of the agricultural sector, following the convincing results recorded in recent years. “Since the 2018-2019 season, Benin has become the leading cotton producer in Africa. Production reached 715,000 tonnes for the 2019-2020 season. With regard to food crops, the country stood out as the second largest producer in the UEMOA region in 2019,” he said, adding that the same upward trend was observed in the livestock and fishing sub-sectors, which are expected to grow in the coming years