On the occasion of the new year, our colleague from the Ivorian Press Agency (AIP) takes a look in the "Retro 2020", highlighting a resilient economy despite the pandemic in 2020, echoing the optimistic wishes of the December 31 of the Head of State Alassane Ouattara.

The Ivorian government has put FCFA 300 billion (€ 456.4 million) to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on all agricultural raw materials sectors, an amount spread over the 2020 and 2021 budget years at the rate of FCFA 150 billion per year.

In June 2020, the professional units executing the agricultural emergency program as part of the measures aimed at mitigating the impact of the health crisis benefited from financial envelopes: FCFA 79.54 billion were granted to the exports including FCFA 35 billion for cashew, FCFA 5.56 billion for cotton, FCFA 24.98 billion for rubber, FCFA 3.5 billion for oil palm, FCFA 4.5 billion for dessert bananas, FCFA 1 billion for pineapple and FCFA 5 billion for mangoes.

FCFA 39.96 billion went to the food production sectors, whether food crops, poultry farming, livestock farming and also artisanal fishing and aquaculture.

At the same time - because this represents essential support for the development of the agricultural sectors, many infrastructure projects have been launched despite the pandemic, further recalls the AIP. With its second container terminal (TC2) in the port area of Vridi, the construction of which was launched at the beginning of October, the reception capacity of the Autonomous Port of Abidjan (PAA) increases from one million to 2.5 million containers. per year (read our information: The Chinese CHEC will ensure the construction of the second container terminal of the port of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire). In January 2020, the construction of the cereal terminal at the PAA was launched: with Japanese funding, it will be able to receive ships carrying 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes (t) of bulk food instead of the current 30,000 t (read our information: Au Port of Abidjan, the construction of the grain terminal has been launched).

As for the sectors, producer prices were raised in 2020, a year of crisis but also an election year. Officially opened in February 2020, the price of cashew nuts rose this year to FCFA 400 per kilo against FCFA 375 in 2019, that of cocoa in the 2020/2021 campaign, from FCFA 825 to FCFA 1,000 per kilo.

For rubber, after market prices fell between May and September, they then returned to their level at the start of the year, ie FCFA 300 per kilo. The same was true for oil palm, the price of which fell between May and September, then rebounded above FCFA 50 per kilo. The price per kilo of cotton, meanwhile, remained at FCFA 300 per kilo for 2020/21, our colleague recalling that this is a record price level in West Africa.