The French government, through its new ambassador Sylvain Riquier, has announced the release of nearly 15 million euros via the AFD to support the development of cash crops (vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang), the main export products of the Comoros.
This is the fourth project launched in the Comoros in 2021 by France as part of the implementation of the France-Comoros Development Plan, with a total budget of 150 million euros. This project to support export sectors and rural development (AFIDEV) was officially launched on Thursday, September 16, by President Azali Assoumani, who recalled on this occasion “our vision to make agriculture an engine of growth and food security in our country,” and highlighted the renewed partnership with France since his meeting with Emmanuel Macron on July 22, 2019. The AFIDEV project aims to “strengthen the competitiveness of agricultural sectors and increase the quantity and value of exports, while ensuring a more favorable distribution of wealth produced on the national territory”: by “restructuring the entire chain” the project will support “50 processing and packaging structures, giving a more important place to women.” It also provides for the “creation of a national office for cash crops” which should steer the development policies of the sectors by aiming at “the transformation and the improvement of the quality of products”. Finally, this AFIDEV project “will finance the research activities of INRAPE (National Institute for Research in Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment)”. From our correspondent in the Comoros: Benoît Barral Photo (archives J.Rombi): production of ylang oil by the Humblot family in Grande Comore)
