Why Senegal wants to reduce its peanut exports

In the peanut basin of Senegal, which extends from Louga (north) to Kaolack (central-west), when the rainy season ends, between mid-October and the beginning of November, the harvest of the Peanut begins. For the 27% of Senegalese households who cultivate it, this is a crucial period. The marketing phase follows, supposed to start in November, just after the setting of a floor price by the State. But this year, everything in this process has fallen behind schedule.

At the end of October, the government decided to suspend, from November 15, exports of peanut seeds for the 2024-2025 campaign, with the objective “to prevent exports from competing with local marketing”according to the Ministry of Agriculture. A measure that worries farmers. “The debate is everywhere under the palaver trees”explains Babacar Ndiaye, farmer of several hectares of peanuts and millet in the locality of Djilor, in Sine Saloum.

For many producers, exports are the only source of income. Firstly because local oil producers, including the National Oilseed Marketing Company of Senegal (Sonacos), do not have the capacity to collect all the peanut production and process it. Of the 1.7 million tonnes of peanuts produced each year, Sonacos and its three private competitors can only absorb a maximum of 500,000 tonnes.

Also, the kilo of peanuts is much better paid for export than on the local market. For the 2023-2024 season, the price per kilo was set at 280 CFA francs (0.42 euros). “Where importers offered prices between 300 and 500 francs per kilo”indicates Babacar Ndiaye. Since an agreement concluded with Dakar in 2014, China is by far the first among them, ahead of India, with nearly 300,000 tonnes of Senegalese peanuts imported in 2023.

“The sector is seriously lacking in organization”

Once lucrative, this Chinese agreement ultimately turned against the local market. “We went through years where Sonacos was no longer able to obtain sufficient supplies of peanuts », says Babacar Diallo, technical assistant of the network of peasant and pastoral organizations in Senegal, which brings together nearly 50,000 farmers. So much so that certain factories of the national oil producer ended up putting an end to part of their activities.

Since the 2010s and the liberalization of the sector by President Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2010), many farmers and collectors have ended up refusing to work with Sonacos, according to Babacar Diallo. “Their payment method is very slow, it can take weeks, whereas with exporters we get paid the minute the truck is loadedcontinues farmer Babacar Ndiaye. They also impose charges, including a reduction linked to the assessment of the quality of the peanut. But many farmers denounce a subjective measurement and abusive reductions. »

However, Chinese importers ended up being accused of “unfair competition”. “The sector is sorely lacking in organization, which has benefited themobserves Habib Thiam, president of the Collective of Peanut Seed Producers and Exporters (Copega). The Chinese went so far as to harvest peanuts directly from the field, with their own Chinese workers and shelling machines, putting aside Senegalese labor. »

Another major problem for Senegal: the quality of its peanut seeds. “For years, we have been exporting our best seeds – including those that are certified and that we are supposed to keep for replanting the following year – because the Chinese and Indians have quality requirements,” underlines Habib Thiam. In other words, many Senegalese farmers find themselves with seeds of declining nutritional quality, the best having been sold abroad years ago.

A slightly raised floor price

Faced with the concern of the peanut world and after several days of consultation, the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock, Mabouba Diagne, softened his announcements. “It is a precautionary measure and not definitivehe explains to World. Today, we say that it is after having secured the tonnes of certified seeds for the following year and the supply of Senegalese oil producers that the peanut can be exported. »

Under the leadership of its new general director, Elhadji Ndane Diagne, appointed in May, the Sonacos factories in Dakar, Ziguinchor, Diourbel and Louga have returned to service in recent weeks. “We will not leave any farmer with unsold seeds, even if this exceeds our industrial capacities,” he promises. On Tuesday, November 26, the floor price of peanuts for the 2024-2025 season was finally revealed by the authorities and set at 305 CFA francs, an increase of 25 francs compared to 2023.

“In view of the closure of borders and the floods which have affected many crops, this price is a disappointment, it is not enough”explains Babacar Ndiaye. And to warn: “ If the State does not redouble its efforts, there may be no seeds this year. », adding that many producers are ready to block their sales if they do not obtain satisfaction.