On October 25, 2024, in Abidjan, under the high-level signs of Place Palmeraie, Place Marcory, Auchan Latrille and Hyper U Sococé, the aromas of freshly baked bread and soumbara flavours blend into the freshness of Grandes et Moyennes Surfaces (GMS). Between warm scents and perfumes, Dr BAH-KONE Ranie-Didice, Executive Secretary of the National Council for the Fight against Expensive Life (CNLVC), took his time. There is nothing more sacred than this reunion with these products drawn from our lands.

A baguette of bread, a whole story
For this fifth edition of the Festival des Farines Locales, there was a crowd, but also a rich selection of breads and pastries made from local flours: fonio, cassava, mil, soya, sorghum. Every passer-by had a bite, a smile on his face. Each piece of bread tells a story, from the field in remote villages to the expert hands of bakers and the purchase. Each aroma emanating from these crispy breads originates in the heart of the Ivorian terroirs.

October, Festival of Local Flours
This festival is part of the fifth edition of the Month of Local Consumption, initiated by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Every year, October becomes a month dedicated to the promotion of food heritage, where consumption habits are tinged with a renewed awareness. In addition to their taste, these products demonstrate the importance of incorporating more local raw materials into the diets of Ivorians. By reducing dependence on often expensive imported products, this initiative could help to boost and strengthen the domestic economy.

Month of Local Consumption, an asset for the sub-region
This festival is not unique to Côte d’Ivoire: it is an initiative of WAEMU. Thus, all populations in the member states are invited to cultivate a local way of life, reducing their dependence on imported products and building a strong and resilient regional economy. Dr. Ranie-Didice Bah-Koné said the event is an invitation to reinvent our recipes, to reconnect with the very essence of the land that feeds us: “This festival is a tribute to the country’s recipes.”

For a resilient economy
This WAEMU initiative aims at food self-sufficiency in Africa, to reduce its dependence on external aid. This festival embodies the hopes of a sub-region ready to take back control of its destiny with its own resources, regain self-sufficiency and celebrate the wealth of a continent with almost unlimited resources. The Local Consumption Month and the Local Flour Festival have demonstrated that Côte d’Ivoire has the resources to achieve food self-sufficiency. Simply trust the talents and know-how of its craftsmen.

FARINE

Even if world production of maize, milk or meat is expected to increase in 2023, food imports from the poorest countries are expected to fall because of the still high price of certain commodities, warned FAO on Thursday 15 June 2023.

While high-income countries will continue to import more, the bill for the 47 least-developed countries, mainly located in Africa, is expected to fall by 1.5% this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its bi-annual “Food Outlook” report.

This decline is expected to be even more pronounced, reaching nearly 5% in net food importing developing countries, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Pakistan.

The decline in food import volumes in these two groups is “a worrying development”, and suggests a decrease in their purchasing capacity, according to FAO.

Even though oil or grain prices have come down since the peak reached in March 2022, after the invasion of Ukraine, they remain at high levels today. And those of fruits, vegetables or dairy products continue to advance, “curbing demand” especially in vulnerable countries.

“These concerns are amplified by the fact that the fall in international prices for a number of basic food products has not translated, or at least not completely, into a fall in prices at the national retail level,” stresses the FAO.

Globally, spending on food imports is expected to set a new record in 2023, although it is expected to “grow at a much slower pace than last year”.

After a jump of 18% in 2021 and 11% in 2022, the bill should increase by 1.5% to reach 1.980 billion dollars.

At the same time, production of rice, coarse grains (maize, sorghum), oilseeds, sugar, milk or meat, with the exception of beef and pork, is expected to increase in 2023/24.

Coarse grain production is expected to increase by 3% to 1,513 million tonnes, a “new record” driven by a crop expected to peak in Brazil.

Wheat, on the other hand, is expected to fall by 3% after the previous season’s record (777 million tonnes), due to a lower harvest in Russia and Australia.

“Despite these generally positive prospects, global food production systems remain vulnerable to climate, geopolitical or economic shocks,” FAO warned.

Madagascar is the third largest paddy producer in Africa behind Nigeria and Egypt. The country targets self-sufficiency in milled rice, but the challenges for the productive apparatus are still numerous.

In Madagascar, rice imports totalled 744,846 tonnes between January and December 2022. The Rice Observatory (ODR) reports this in its latest monthly newsletter. The volume announced shows an 18% increase over the 629,414 tonnes recorded a year earlier.

According to the public body, this year-over-year growth in cereal purchases on the international market was supported by the government’s implementation of a policy that “was intended to encourage operators to pursue imports in order to limit the increase in local rice prices”.

As a guide, the average retail price per kilogram of locally produced milled rice rose 2% in one month to 2,657 ariarys ($0.61) in December 2022, while imported rice traded at 2,523 ariarys over the same period ($0.58).

Behind the rise in domestic prices, The lack of local paddy supply resulting from a 6% to 4 million tonne drop in production during the 2021/2022 rice season due to the severe drought that delayed the start of the growing season.

As a reminder, Madagascar produces about 80% of its bleached rice consumption needs.

Stéphanas Assocle (Intern)