International Conference on Sharing Innovative Agribusiness Solutions

From Farms to Markets: Providing Know-how and Finance, 26-27 November 2008, Cairo, Egypt

About the conference

The conference is a follow-up to the successful First Global Agro-Industry Forum organized by FAO, UNIDO and IFAD in New Delhi, India, 8-11 April 2008. The conference was also inspired by the success of the UNIDO project “Traceability of agro-industrial products for the European market - ETRACE”.

The conference was organized by UNIDO in cooperation with the Government of Egypt and the SEKEM Initiative. The conference was supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and co-financed by the Italian Development Cooperation and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs as well as by local sponsors.

About the process leading to the conference

Over 400 participants submitted over 120 innovative agribusiness solutions, which were reviewed by a team of high-level international experts prior to the conference. The most promising solutions, i.e. those that have already been successfully implemented and have the potential to be replicated in other developing countries were showcased during the conference. Of these, twelve were highlighted for their particularly innovative character and their potential to help developing countries attract agribusiness-related investments. Conference preparations were also supported by an International Advisory Board. The members of the IAB have provided independent views and informed advice on the conference and its follow-up, in order to help promote it and ensure maximum impact.

About ETRACE

ETRACE was founded through the Italian-Egyptian Dept for Development Swap, which assists Egyptian farmers and the entire food value chain so as to increase the availability of safe food for the domestic market and facilitate the access of Egyptian food products to export markets.

This project is a cooperative effort between UNIDO, the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the private sector. It addresses emerging problems related to compliance with Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) standards and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) requirements for fresh produce and processed food exports so as to avoid the risk of encountering barriers in export markets.

In particular, the project responded to the European Union Food Law Regulation EC/178/2002, which requires that all food and feeds circulating in the EU must be traceable. This means that importers in the EU require exporters to implement traceability systems to control safety and improve supply-chain management. The project is funded under the Italian-Egyptian Debt for Development Swap mechanism and started operation in 2004.

The project approach has been to build local capacity, whereby major efforts and resources have been directed towards training national experts to enable them to provide assistance to users to develop and implement traceability systems. Producers and exporters across the entire food chain have been trained, including producers from Upper Egypt, food transporters and other service providers.

An essential feature of the project is that it provides not only technical assistance, but also finance to enable the users to implement the traceability system. The project focuses on fresh produce exporting companies, helping them implement international quality and safety standards and comply with SPS requirements.

Assistance has been provided to about 100 of the 200 packing houses in the country (and 8 pilot food processors), and it is estimated that the assisted packing houses account for approximately 85 per cent of exports. Through them, the project has reached around 45,000 farms and thus nearly 5 million people.