May 27, 2008

U.S. Ambassador Visits Mali Agricultural Program

On May 27 U.S. Ambassador to Mali Terence P. McCulley and other embassy officials visited mango processing companies in Sikasso, Mali, that have received support under the USAID-funded Mali Agricultural Value Chain Initiative. The three-year, $1 million project is developing various value chains in order to create job opportunities and increase incomes. ACDI/VOCA provides expert consultants for the project as a subcontractor to Abt Associates.

The party visited the Malian Citrus and Edible Oil company (Société Agrume et Oléagineux du Mali, AOM), which is a mango conditioning center. Under the project producers supplying AOM have been trained in the GLOBALGAP certification process, and AOM station agents have been trained in best conditioning and packaging practices. The project also assisted the firm in borrowing approximately $114,000 from the BNDA bank for working capital.

AOM employs 168 people, of whom 87 are women working as conditioning agents. In addition, AOM works with 15 mango “pisteurs,” or collectors, who employ an average of 15 mango cutters each. AOM has an export contract for 2,000 tons of fresh mangoes this year.

The initiative has also contributed to the soundness of Kéne Yiriden, a drying company which was another stop on the ambassador’s tour. Project staff first met with company owner Youssouf Coulibaly to devise a business plan, and then helped the firm obtain a $25,000 loan to train in best practices, purchase more mangoes and double processing capacity by adding five new drying ovens to the previous two.

At the end of May, Kéne Yiriden had already exported more than all of last year’s volume, and by year’s end it plans to have shipped a total of 8 tons, quadrupling last year’s totals. The growth of his business has enabled Mr. Coulibaly to more than double the number of employees to 26, of whom 20 are women.

These bright spots of prosperity have created a not insignificant infusion of income for the community. “By creating employment, you fight against poverty and in that process you transform lives of the employees who process mangoes and those who produce them,” Coulibaly said.

To learn more about the program, click here.