Due to its distance from European markets, COLEACP’s demand-driven programmes receive fewer requests from the Pacific region than from Africa and the Caribbean. But the Pacific agri-food and fruit and vegetable sector is a key source of economic opportunities at local and regional levels, and COLEACP has been involved in the region for over 20 years through key partnerships and continuous relationships with the Embassies in Brussels. COLEACP’s EU-funded programmes have been active in the region since the early 2000s, mainly in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu, including a programme with Papua New Guinea’s Department of Agriculture and Livestock to improve food safety for fish, coffee and cocoa and to upgrade the national sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) control system.
Under the current Fit For Market programme, COLEACP attended the 2nd Pacific Agribusiness Forum in Samoa in 2016, “Linking the Agrifood Sector to Local Markets for Economic Growth and Improved Food and Nutrition Security”, which provided an opportunity to meet potential collaborators including the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation (PIPSO). COLEACP is working closely with PIPSO to develop a Memorandum of Understanding that will aim at developing training tools. At the Joint ACP-EU Private Sector Development Information, Knowledge Sharing and Networking event for the Pacific region in December 2019, COLEACP took part in a B2B session for Fijian producers and export companies. The event, organised by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and PIPSO, brings together ACP-EU financing facilities and private sector development programmes on one hand, and ACP private sector stakeholders on the other.
Our activities
COLEACP is working with Hargy Oil Palms Ltd in Papua New Guinea. The company works with 3,700 small-scale producers of palm oil. Although this crop is not part of COLEACP’s remit, as part of its corporate social responsibility activities in support of better nutrition, Hargy also supervises small-scale vegetable producers. COLEACP works with Hargy to strengthen the skills of its training unit.
COLEACP’s training-of-trainers-of-trainers in Tanzania in June 2019 was attended by experts from Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The 2-week training included both technical apects such as health quality and crop protection, and methods such as interactive training techniques..
In 2019 COLEACP joined with the New Caledonia Chamber of Agriculture to contribute to its Agrinnov initiative, which aims to improve management in the field of plant protection, particularly through the sustainable management of plant protection products and support for the development of organic agriculture.
Regarding SPS issues, COLEACP’s series of (virtual) regional e-meetings for National Plant Protection Organisations (NPPOs) in December 2020 included a session specifically for Pacific NPPOs.
Pacific islands have also benefited from general and specific information disseminated about the new EU phytosanitary regulations, based for example on information from the Commission on Phytosanitary Measures in Rome and side events organised by FAO.
COLEACP aims to coordinate with existing and potential partners who are active in the region to ensure synergies and multiply impact.
