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The year 2022 will have been hectic for the commodity markets. Some companies are particularly dependent on it. This is the case of Nioto, a Togolese company specializing in the processing of oilseeds such as cottonseed oil or shea butter. His boss, Thierry Awesso, also vice-president of Togolese employers, draws prospects. Maintenance.
RFI : Thierry Awesso, how does your company has she crossed the current crisis in the area raw material ?
Thierry Awesso : We started going through some tough times in 2019, with the start of Covid. After a period of adaptation, we were able to react appropriately to a situation which was temporary, but which was taking hold. Unfortunately, we once again ran into uncertainty with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis which destabilized a number of costs for certain products. In an industry like ours, we have inputs like food hexane [solvant employé pour l’extraction des huiles végétales, NDLR]. We use it to fix the residual fat in our shea kernels that come out of the mechanical presses. It has seen an increase of more than 200% in thirteen months. So we had to adapt when we were already on contracts which were tied up over well-defined periods and which could not be modified.
The difficulties supply touch So the process de transformation ?
Absolutely. The needs are always the same when you produce goods, such as shea butter, part of which traditionally replaces cocoa butter, which is becoming increasingly rare. And you have the second part of shea butter that will go into cosmetics. The needs have always been there. The population is increasing. You know that our populations are doubling every 20 years and that the international demand for a certain number of products, including shea butter, is growing, whatever the difficulties and therefore the arrival of materials. raw. Togo, like Mali, Burkina, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, naturally have shea plants that can continue to supply the international market, which has remained constant.
In this context and with high inflation, how to set the right price to earn money and satisfy consumers at affordable prices?
It’s a real question. Let’s take the example of oil, our other sector of activity. We are an industrial unit, we transform cottonseed into vegetable oil which is very rich and in high demand. You should know that for a country like Togo, the national need is 80,000 tonnes. But the possibilities, if we put together all the cottonseed, are only 8,000 tons. So there is a difference of 72,000 tonnes. Togo is obliged to import. Production per hectare must therefore be improved to remain at a certain level. Beyond that, our countries have decided to take a number of short-term measures to deal with this galloping inflation. The government has taken measures that we welcome: subsidies in certain areas such as wheat, fuel, gas. For a while, you had to adapt. But perhaps other neighboring countries did not necessarily follow the same pace and we very quickly found ourselves in a situation where consumers in these countries benefited from the measures that were taken here.
Do you call for more regional cooperation?
We believe that this passage is absolutely necessary. We have structures in place at WAEMU level [Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine, NDLR] and ECOWAS [Communauté économique des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, NDLR] and which are regulated by TEC [Tarif extérieur commun, NDLR]. Therefore, at the level of our sub-region, we believe that it is necessary to improve the applicability of the various decisions and that they are harmonized. This is the reason why an organization like AIFO, the Association of Industrial Units in the Oilseed Sector, has made proposals to this effect.
La Zlecaf is she a hope?
The Zlecaf, it was absolutely necessary to pass by there. From a market of 350 million inhabitants to a market of 1.5 billion inhabitants. You see there are great opportunities, but there are necessary steps to take as you go along. ” Step by step as the English say, to get there.
Are you expecting a slightly more peaceful 2023?
Yes, because we resisted. We have been resilient enough and entered into a crisis that can last. We no longer have any illusions. So we are in the process of finding resilience solutions to improve ourselves. And unlike at the start of the crisis when everyone thought it was going to pass, we are in it and in the process of building the future differently.
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