Senegal: Slow start of the marketing campaign
by Market Insider
Thursday, 15 Jan. 2015
The groundnut marketing campaign started
up officially on December 29th 2014, with a producer price fixed at
0.37 US$/kg (200 XOF/kg).
The Senegalese Government
has already allocated 18.5 million US$ to cover the debt of seed and fertilizer
operators. A Marketing Fund of 21.5 million US$ was decided to be set up and
divided among processors, in order to compensate the subsidy on the groundnut
producer price of 200 XOF/kg. Delays in the implementation of disbursement
procedures of this Fund caused the slow start of the campaign.
Without
sufficient financial resources to buy the crop and pay back their previous
debts, processors are still waiting by mid-January to qualify for bank loans;
groundnut trucks are parked in front of Suneor plant, waiting for the company
to be able to pay for the crop. Only few operators were able to buy groundnut
stocks with their own funds; all the others are still waiting to qualify for
loans. As a result, by January 13th only about 700 tons of
groundnuts and 685 tons of seeds to be certified were reported collected in
Tambacounda region and 3300 tons of groundnuts and seeds were collected in
Kaolack.
The release of the fund started the second week
of January 2015. About a half of the fund (12 million US$) is allocated to
Suneor, a third (7 million US$) to Copeol (formerly Novasen) and 2 million US$
to Touba agro-industrial complex (CAIT). Copeol began already to issue licenses
to private operators and storekeepers and receive groundnuts in its Kaolack
plant, and Suneor is announced to follow from January
19th onward.
Sources : http://www.seneweb.com/news/Economie/quot-timide-quot-demarrage-de-la-campagn_n_145042.html,
http://www.aps.sn/articles.php?id_article=137415,
http://www.walf-groupe.com/actualites/economie/4478-campagne-de-commercialisation-de-l-arachide-17-5-milliards-annonces,
http://news.adakar.com/h/26219.html