More than 40 farmers, producers, agribusinesses, cooperatives and officials from LVV, EZOTI and ROS among others participated in an interactive 4-day training workshop held from 12 to 15 October 2022. Experts from the Sustainable Food Value Chains team of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) implemented the training organized by the Suriname Agriculture Market Access Project (SAMAP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (LVV).

This training provided an opportunity for stakeholders to refresh important value chain development concepts and to interact and learn new business model approaches under which value chain functions. The training built from practical examples and experiences implemented by FAO in other countries.

“Many of the trainings implemented are very theoretical, however in these four days, we had practical and dynamic sessions that helped me to understand better, how the value chains operate, and why it is so important for agribusinesses to coordinate and cooperate with all the stakeholders to transform our production in the cassava sector. I am even more convinced now, that many of the problems we have in the agriculture sector in Suriname, can actually be resolved if we have a long-term vision, a plan, and the commitment to work together from farm to fork”, expressed the CEO of Tropical Pride Chips Factory NV, who is also the Chair of the Cassava Value Chain Platform Steering Committee.

The training in value chain development: from analysis to implementation, focused on examples at firm level where participants learned new business modalities for making profits in a more efficient way. “Understanding the market needs, the consumer preferences, the market requirements and organizing the production to deliver high quality products in a sustainable way is something that our agribusinesses need to do constantly, but we fail to achieve this because our businesses are used to work in isolation and only looking at results in the short-term. We need a shift in mentality and that is what I have learned in this training”, said the CEO of Tan Bun Skrati NV.

The Director of Agriculture from the Ministry of LVV, Mr. Soedeshchand Jairam, highlighted the importance of modern agribusinesses working in win-win partnerships where the public sector enables the conditions for business through regulation, policies and standards while the private sector invests in techniques to improve the quantity and quality of production and farmers adopt good agriculture practices. “A genuine dialogue between the public and private sector to tackle the bottlenecks of the value chain is possible if we work in platforms, as LVV is working with the rice platform in Nickerie and now with cassava and fruits and vegetables with the support from SAMAP”, stressed Director Jairam in his opening remarks.

SAMAP is an initiative of the Government of Suriname led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries (LVV) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funds from the European Union (EU). Its main goal is to strengthen the sustainable development of agriculture through more competitive and safer production that will increase market access for vegetables, fruits, roots & tubers and non-timber forest products.