MAFAP programme supports Burkina Faso in preparing its next national exports strategy
At Ouagadougou workshop, the country's exports promotion agency, APEX-Burkina, draws on MAFAP analysis to identify priority export commodities.
The Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme took part in a national policy dialogue on exports during a workshop organized by Burkina Faso's export promotion agency (Agence pour la Promotion des Exportations du Burkina [APEX-Burkina]) on 18 December 2025 in Ouagadougou.
The workshop convened 25 participants from APEX-Burkina, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Crafts Industry (MICA in French), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF in French), and private-sector representatives from several agrifood value chains, including the mango and cashew value chains. The one-day workshop aimed to focus discussions on the evaluation of the last national exports promotion strategy – the Stratégie nationale de promotion des exportations (SNE) 2019–2023 – and on the groundwork for the West African country’s next national exports strategy.
From left to right: APEX-Burkina Director General Soumayila Bara, MICA Head of Research Mathué Badiel, and FAO Emergencies and Resilience Coordinator Mohamed Sylla at the FAO Representation in Burkina Faso
APEX-Burkina’s Directorate of Studies and Foresight presented an evaluation report of the SNE 2019–2023 alongside the preliminary report for the forthcoming strategy. Workshop participants shared their feedback, and MAFAP representatives contributed to technical exchanges on both documents, drawing on analytical work developed under the MAFAP programme.
Following the 2019–2023 SNE, the MAFAP team has been supporting APEX-Burkina with policy advice to identify agricultural exports with a competitive edge and strong growth potential. In 2025, the MAFAP programme published a joint report with APEX-Burkina covering 16 agricultural commodities, identifying 10 products for which Burkina Faso shows a clear export advantage to diversify its exports basket. The report also recommends dynamic markets (countries) at the regional and global level for each product, highlighting countries with a particular demand for certain agrifood products.
This analysis has already been used by APEX-Burkina to produce factsheets on high-potential agrifood products, and during the workshop itself, officials from agency acknowledged the relevance of the MAFAP programme’s study on agrifood export diversification to prioritize value chains in the next national export strategy and identify trade-facilitation measures.
The exports workshop came just days after the MAFAP programme organzied a policy-monitoring workshop in Ouagadougou on public expenditure on food and agriculture in the country and on "price incentives" for 9 key commodities.
Next steps
The MAFAP team will continue to collaborate with APEX-Burkina in 2026, supporting the technical team in charge of drafting the new national export strategy.
participants at the APEX-Burkina exports promotion workshop, including MAFAP programme Focal point in Burkina faso mahamoudou koutou (centre), and mafap policy reform coordinator thibault meilland (right).
Contact
Mahamoudou Koutou MAFAP Focal Point in Burkina Faso [email protected]