Agriculture

A number of development strategies estab¬lished by the government, notably the Na¬tional Agricultural Investment Programme, are leading the way for Côte d’Ivoire to increase its production in key subsectors and improve its processing capabilities. In the short term, storage capa¬bilities will be essential to ensuring that agricultural products are maintained at a standard of quality on par with buyers’ expectations. The biggest challenge, how¬ever, remains surpassing current low levels of added value and processing. As a result, efforts to encourage local processing substantially through bonuses and direct payments to processors, as well as with tax incentives and programmes directly tackling constraints to processing will remain a state priority for the years ahead. This chapter contains interviews with Yves Brahima Koné, General Manager, Coffee and Cocoa Council; and Christophe Koreki, Managing Director, Palm-CI.