African Rice Exchange

African Rice Exchange

20/10/2015
Christ Vansteenkiste
Christ Vansteenkiste
Rice cluster coordinator

The origin of the African Rice Exchange (ARE) dates back to 2014. In October, 4 farmer leaders of West Africa and 3 staff members of VECO participated in the International Rice Conference held in Bangkok and broadly exchanged with rice producers and actors in Thailand. This was such a fruitful experience that the return of the team gave birth to the idea of organizing an exchange visit at the level of Africa with this main thread: business models for rice processing and commercialization. It is obvious that during the trip, the technical and production aspects of rice producing were important; but the main intention of the visit was to spread a broad and rich vision among the participants relating to the different inter-linked business models in the white rice and parboiled rice sectors as a source of inspiration for their work.

So, in August, 8 farmers and staff from VECO East Africa and VECO Congo got on a plane to Dakar where the exchange was to start. They were joined by staff from VECO West Africa (Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso). A participant from TRIAS Burkina Faso also joined. The team was completed with Jan Aertsen and Christ Vansteenkiste form Vredeseilanden in Belgium. Together they took off for a journey of about 3300 km over 3 countries in 10 days, traveling from Dakar to Saint-Louis, to Anambe, to Segou, to Bama and Douna, taking a rest in Bobo Dioulasso to finally end in Ouagadougou.

A large part of the program consisted of the lessons learned from the visit to Thailand and presentations prepared by the participants: a clear and concise story relating to a business model of rice in the participant’s country that they described and explained to the others. Another part of the program consisted of feedback sessions on learned items, reflections made by the participants after visits and previous presentations. Below you can read the report of the African Rice Exchange, which captures the visits, the presentations and exchanges. The annexes are available on request.