Libreville, Wednesday February 14, 2024 (Infos Gabon) – The Prime Minister, head of government, Raymond Ndong Sima, yesterday invited participants to the national workshop organized by the Stabilization and Equalization Funds with a view to revitalizing these two sectors.
The cocoa and coffee sectors are in poor shape in Gabon and are struggling to recover. The country produces barely 200 tonnes per year. This is the sad observation made yesterday on the occasion of the opening of the national workshop for the revitalization of these two sectors. But the public authorities intend to reverse the trend and be able to address this decline. A decline that occurred at the end of the 1980s following the discovery of oil by Gabon. The successive public policies put in place by the government to revive these sectors have not been able to achieve convincing results.
Reason why, by opening this meeting, the Prime Minister, head of government, invited the participants to reflect on the creation of a development fund aimed at boosting the production of cocoa and coffee in free fall. “Given the importance of the expected results of this workshop, I hope that these exchanges will make it possible to find relevant and sustainable mechanisms with a view to relaunching the cocoa and coffee sectors by putting in place suitable financing mechanisms such as a Development Fund for the cocoa and coffee sectors,” launched Raymond Ndong Sima.
According to the general director of the Stabilization and Equalization Funds (Caistab), many factors are at the origin of this situation. “Producers are faced with several problems that must be addressed quickly for the survival of these sectors, in particular: the lack of plant material; technical routes not adapted to current environmental standards and issues, low level of popularization and technical assistance; the poor mastery of post-harvest technology by producers, the absence of structuring of producer organizations; the absence of a concerted mechanism for setting prices for cocoa and coffee,” indicated Ismaël Gnamalengoungou Oligui.
For the Minister of the Economy, we need an increase in quality production by favoring incentive measures for the benefit of planters. “We must also succeed in increasing the income of cocoa and coffee growers because it is only by achieving this objective of increasing income that we will achieve another challenge, that of rejuvenating the growing populations in rural areas. If we manage to do this, we will have succeeded in settling populations in rural areas,” underlined Mays Mouissi.
FIN/INFOSGABON/SM/2024
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