People in profiles: Paul Stephane Pegnene Goa

Stephane sits in his home office in Abidjan, the largest town in the Ivory Coast. He has just finished speaking over the telephone with BioTropic Africa-manager Kuemkwong Siemefo in Germany. "We were discussing the number of containers which should be shipped with our fruit to Europe this week. At the same time I am looking after the logistics formalities of the freight forwarders and shipping companies." The 38-year old has been working with the Ivoire Organics producer group for 6 years.



Three days a week Stephane travels out to the fields. The pineapples and coconuts that are to be shipped grow about 60 km out from Abidjan. The cultivation of pineapples has a lengthy tradition in the country, but organic pineapples were a new development when the Ivoire Organics producer group started in 2008.

Stephane has been familiar with agriculture even from an early age. As the son of a farmer and a teacher he was born in the mainly agricultural region near Divo in the south of the country -- he has seven brothers and sisters. As a young man Stephane was allowed to take over his grandfather's coca fields. To further his studies he moved to Abidjan and studied economics and project management. After his studies he found a job working for the Ministry and he was responsible, amongst other things, for slum redevelopment in Abidjan. Jacob Ahui was a colleague of his. Jacob and BioTropic built up the producer group Ivoire Organics. He asked Stephane whether he would like to join. He did.

The initial period was unsettled. As pioneers in organic farming they had to overcome many hurdles. They had to establish contact with authorities, organise suitable seed and technical equipment. Kuemkwong Siemefo from BioTropic made a crucial contribution to getting the show up and running. In addition to this they managed to source the necessary funds with a PPP.

After Jacob Ahui suddenly passed away two years later, Stephane took over his work. Together with his employees and Kuemkwong Siemefo, he put new ideas into practice again and again. Most new ideas were successful, while sometimes he had to deal with setbacks too. This was the case with papayas, for example. They were planted and grown at considerable time and effort -- but in the end production had to be closed down again. The reason for this is that the sea-voyage to Europe is lengthy and the fruit is usually over ripe upon arrival. In order to overcome this problem, the fruit had to be harvested before it was fully ripe. However, unforeseen quality problems cropped up when the fruit ripened subsequently. Such problems could have been avoided had the fruit been sent by airfreight, but this method of transport is particularly harmful to the environment and was not an option that Ivoire Organics and BioTropic were prepared to consider.

Things became critical for Stephane and the producer group when there was a great increase in civil unrest in the country in 2011. The banks stopped working -- Ivoire Organics appeared to be stymied. They were unable to continue operating without any money. In order to be able to continue trading the producer group decided to work together with banks in other countries. If the firm needed money, Stephane went to Togo -- a round trip of 1,600 kilometres.

Stephane is proud that in spite of the crisis three years ago the producer group continued working and was able to supply Ivoire Organics consistently. What is he hoping for in the future? "I would like to be the manager of the best African firm trading in organic fruit".

3 personal questions put to Paul Stephane Pegnene Goa:

1)What is it that attracts you to organic fruit?
I regard organic farming as being not only an alternative method of farming which is environmentally-friendly, but I also see it as an opportunity for farmers to break away from being dependent upon expensive synthetic fertilisers and herbicides while increasing their income at the same time.

2)And what do you like eating?
My favourite fruit is pineapple, especially pineapples grown by us. I also like beans, soja and monkey-nuts straight from the field. They are planted in between our rows of pineapple and can be harvested by everyone for their own personal use.

3)Have there been any comical experiences with Ivoire Organics?
One of our members told us the following story once: before he came to Ivoire Organics, he used to work for a conventional co-operative. He had devoted his entire 1 hectare plot to growing pineapples for them. His crop was good in terms of both quality and quantity and he looked forward to a good turnover after 14 months of hard work. However the farmer did not know what the world was coming to when the co-operative told him that their turnover had been very poor and they even told him that he should pay them money back! Furious, he returned to the co-operative together with members of his family. Armed with clubs and rakes to take those persons responsible to task, they came up with the truth: the sale of pineapples had in fact gone so well that he should have received a profit as well. The farmer has been working for Ivoire Organics for two years now and he is still pleased that he has made the change.

Tags: Pineapple (GB), Ivory Coast (GB), Ivoire Organics (GB), Coconut (GB), Kuemkwong Siemefo (GB), PPP (GB), Stéphane Goa (GB)

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