As the State is responsible for food safety, a certain number of measures have been taken to control products before placing them on the market. Faced with this situation, the Director General of the National Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (Anpme) held a discussion and clarification session with the promoters of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises on Monday, October 11, 2021.

On the Beninese market, authorization to market agri-food products is subject to a registration and health certification procedure. Thus, no local or imported product can circulate on the Beninese market without a marketing authorization. The objective of this initiative is to ensure the quality of agri-food products. This provision worries micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) which have very interesting products that are well developed but which do not go through the formal circuit. “On the instructions of the Minister of SMEs, we met them and listened to them. We reminded them that they must update themselves, have production units that meet standards, manufacture healthy products and request legal authorizations before putting any product on the market,” said Dg Anpme, Alexandre Houedjoklounon. He adds: “They understood. We will continue the support work with them, see with the other structures concerned, namely the Beninese Food Safety Agency and the National Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control in order to make their products more competitive. and respectful of the legal provisions”. Angèle Tawari, director of the Angel's floor establishment came out of this meeting with a note of hope.