The EU has built and equipped new cold chambers at the Port of Abidjan’s fruit terminal in Côte d’Ivoire, according to APA, giving the port a coldstorage capacity of some 1,600 pallets of fruit.
The investment, at a cost of over CFA Fr2bn (€3m), will reinforce the capacity and facilities of the terminal in order to improve the competitiveness of the fruit sector in the country in the face of strong competition from Latin America.
“This constant support through the fruit sector, with nearly CFA Fr30bn (€45m) granted by the EU since 1993, illustrates the dynamism of our partnership,” said the Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of agriculture, Amadou Gon Coulibaly.
The move is also an attempt to halt the decline in fruit production in the country. Volumes have fallen from 213,000 tonnes to under 60,000 tonnes in the last ten years.
