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ReportageIn ten years or so, small pineapple producers have developed an organic and fair trade sector based on an economic partnership with a cooperative in Marmande. An approach that provides them with opportunities and better remuneration.
The ballet is incessant. On the conveyor belt of the Jus Tillou factory, the pineapples roll and tumble, one after the other, through the steel jaw of the industrial extractor. A few seconds later, all that’s left is a pale yellow juice with an exceptional taste. “The pineapple from Benin is the best in the world. We don’t need to add anything, nature has planned everything “, smiles with pride Bertille Guèdègbé Marcos, CEO of Jus Tillou. Its factory, whose production started in 2016 in the small town of Allada (50 km north of Cotonou), is the very first fair trade organic pineapple processing unit in Benin. Last year, it was already able to export nearly 600,000 liters of juice to France.
Historically, this West African agricultural country has been a continental champion of pineapple. After cotton and cashew nuts, the fruit is the third most exported product. But before Mme Marcos, no one had the idea of adding value to the sector by exporting organic pineapple. In 2018, Les Jus Tillou took another step forward by obtaining the Fairtrade label. From now on, the company guarantees its suppliers, united in the Benin Pineapple Producers Network (RepAB), a salary significantly higher than what they received in the past.
“This label is a real godsend. Since then, I have made a lot better living. I was able to provide suitable studies for my children “, enthuses François Bodotodé, member of the RéPAB, as he walks around the owner. A few kilometers from the Allada factory, its operation of nearly 3,000 m2 hosts more than 15,000 pineapple plants.
A demanding industry
Mr. Bodotodé’s plot has not always been so large, nor organic, let alone fair. The road traveled by the 47-year-old farmer to achieve economic balance and Fairtrade certification has been long and strewn with pitfalls.
More than twenty years ago, when the Beninese peasant started producing, organic did not exist. Like the 1,600 other producers of the RéPAB, Mr. Bodotodé then sold his kilo of conventional pineapple for a pittance, barely 65 CFA francs (about 0.10 centime). Pesticides burn the land slowly. So, to preserve the future of their soils and earn more money, the members of the RepAB are converting to organic. In 2009, with the help of Mme Marcos, the RepAB obtains its organic certification. The sector, a precursor in Benin, is structured but lacks professionalism.
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