BURKINA FASO RAMPS UP FOOD PRODUCTION

Following a people-backed 2022 military coup d’état that ousted a Western-aligned leader, Burkina Faso ramped industrialisation to put food sovereignty at the forefront of its development goals. This includes launching multiple food-processing factories to transform locally grown tomatoes into tomato paste, wheat into flour, and nuts and seeds into oil.

In this video, President Ibrahim Traoré (@capitaineib226 on X) inaugurates the International Deli Agence Production Industries (ADIPROD Industries) industrial complex in 2024. The complex produces refined cooking oils from peanuts, sesame seeds, and soybeans. The state encouraged the private company to establish a factory to help the country reduce its dependence on imports, export its products and strengthen its economic sovereignty.

For decades, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank pushed structural adjustment programmes that kept Burkina Faso in a state of dependency, exporting raw materials while importing finished products at inflated prices.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, Burkina Faso was the world's ninth-largest producer of sesame seeds, with 247,156 tonnes in 2023. Yet, it generated no sesame seed oil. 

According to the US Drug Administration, Burkina Faso has produced 575,000 tonnes of peanuts in recent years but no peanut products like oil or butter.

Burkina Faso produced 212,294 tonnes of rice in 2023. 

It also grew 122,794 tonnes of soybeans that year, but no records show soybean oil production. 

Once Burkina Faso transforms nuts and seeds into cooking oils, it will be able to energise its agricultural sector and growing industries to support decolonisation and grow its exports.

Burkina Faso is not 'poor.' Rather, it had been deliberately pillaged. Now, it is taking back control of its destiny.

Video credits: @sigbf (IG + X) / @fabso7_bf (IG + X)

Sources:

https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL

https://www.atlasbig.com/en-us/countries-peanut-production

https://pip.worldbank.org/country-profiles/BFA

https://ipad.fas.usda.gov/countrysummary/Default.aspx?id=UV&crop=Peanut

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/burkinafaso/overview