Africa: Côte d’Ivoire Launches West Africa’s First Agricultural Commodities Change

After seven years in fashion, Côte d’Ivoire has launched West Africa’s first agricultural commodities substitute – the Bourse des Matières Premières Agricoles or BMPA.

Formally opened on Wednesday 28 Would possibly also in the Ivorian financial capital Abidjan, the bogus began formal trading on Friday, with the aim of bringing transparency, structure, and improved profits to the living’s agricultural producers.

The substitute’s symbolic delivery used to be swift and promising: in exactly ten minutes, 89 tonnes of goods had been traded, valued at nearly 31 million CFA francs – honest below €50,000.

For now, the platform lists three key products – raw cashew nuts, cola nuts, and maize – chosen for their strategic importance to the nationwide economy.

To designate the starting up this week, the West African Financial and Monetary Union posted on X that the bogus “marks an historic turning point for the Ivorian agricultural sector.”

To veil this roar from X (Twitter), you wish to enable commercial tracking and target audience measurement.

Acquire Region up my choices Clear, regulated market

The BMPA replaces informal trading practices with a regulated platform that displays staunch-time provide and quiz dynamics.

Côte d’Ivoire is the sphere’s high producer of every raw cashews and cola nuts, with over 1 million tonnes of cashews and 250,000 tonnes of cola nuts produced every year.

Maize additionally plays a central characteristic in home food security.

Farmers lift their flowers to authorized warehouses shut to production areas and receive warehouse receipts, which assist as transaction documents on the bogus.

Talking to RFI, Raoul-Alex Zouzou, head of African Commodities Brokerage House (ACBH), defined: “With this receipt, producers will come and meet brokers to sell their produce online.”

“From the exchange platform, the broker – who is also in contact with manufacturers, processors and exporters – will offer these products to buyers.”

This fashion aims to stabilise seasonal provide fluctuations, especially in flowers love cashews.

“Cashew nut production takes place over a short period,” Beh Soro knowledgeable RFI, who heads the Ivorian inter-skilled cashew nut organisation.

“As a result, we have an abundance during the harvest period. Capturing the stock during a period of abundance allows us to regulate the market and therefore sell later, when demand is more attractive for producers.”

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Infrastructure and operation

The BMPA is underpinned by certified warehousing regulations, overseen by the Warehouse Receipt Regulatory Authority (ARRE), offering a full storage skill of 500,000 tonnes.

Monetary transactions are managed by the National Funding Bank, acting below an affiliated Agricultural Settlement Bank.

Procuring and selling intervals are held Monday to Friday – from 10 am to noon GMT – with designate changes per session puny at 10 to 15 percent, as a safeguard against market volatility.

Licensed brokers consist of West Africa Commodities Market, Raw Materials Procuring and selling, and the ACBH, with participants starting from smallholder farmers and cooperatives to exporters and investors.

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A regional milestone

The BMPA will not be any longer fully a nationwide fulfillment for Cote d’Ivoire, however a regional first at some stage in the West African Financial and Monetary Union.

It joins about 15 commodity exchanges all the absolute most reasonable scheme by Africa – in conjunction with these in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya.

Globally, there are roughly 125 exchanges, with South Africa’s being the supreme, trading over €72 billion every year.

By providing transparent pricing, greater get entry to to markets, and a formal platform for transactions, the BMPA hopes to diminish dependency on international designate-atmosphere hubs love London or Kuala Lumpur and toughen farmer incomes.

Challenges remain, nonetheless, in conjunction with puny infrastructure, finance get entry to, and awareness among stakeholders.

But the BMPA is a mettlesome step forward – portion of a broader scheme to modernise agriculture and empower native producers by market inclusion and financial resilience.

(This text used to be tailored from an fashioned file on RFI’s French carrier)