Peanut: IFTC confirms its support to the Senegalese oil company Sonacos
A traditional partner of the Senegalese peanut industry, ITFC, a subsidiary of the Islamic Development Bank specialized in trade finance, approved on November 17 the awarding of a new grant to Sonacos (Société nationale de commercialisation des oléagineux du Sénégal). This support, which will include the acquisition of laboratory analysis equipment and the training of staff in the use and maintenance of this new equipment, is intended « […] to make a significant contribution to the country’s export capacity as Sonacos seeks to penetrate new markets and improve its contribution to global value chains, » the Islamic financial institution’s statement said.
In fact, Sonacos has, through its five production units (Ziguichor, Diourbel, Louga, Dakar and Lyndiane), a crushing capacity of 360,000 tons of peanuts, a volume that exceeds the annual domestic demand, estimated at 200,000 tons. Exporting internationally therefore makes sense for the Senegalese group, which is continuing its recovery efforts after difficult years under the aegis of the Advens group and the French-Senegalese entrepreneur Abbas Jaber. Sonacos, which is regularly hit by supply difficulties due to competition from Chinese traders in the local groundnut industry, should also continue its initiatives to diversify its production: in addition to domestic collection of groundnuts to supply its factories, the state-owned company is now targeting the import and refining of crude palm and soybean oils.
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