Côte d’Ivoire/Senegal: Dutch Seed Sector Explores New Opportunities

Like other countries in West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal have a strong focus on food sovereignty and self-sufficiency. In this context, the ministries of agriculture in both countries have expressed the need to develop the local seed sector. Bilateral cooperation with the Dutch seed companies in horticulture over the past couple of years has shown there is a large potential to do this together.

The Netherlands is a global leader in integrated seed sector development. This mission was designed to translate that expertise into tangible partnerships in two of West Africa’s most dynamic agricultural markets. The program covered institutional meetings, B2B sessions, field visits, and co-creation workshops across Abidjan and Dakar.

List of Participants-Innovative Seed Mission to Côte d'Ivoire/Senegal

	Company	Name	Position
1	Resilience BV	Marijke Zonnenberg	Agribusiness Consultant
2	Agriterra	Brit van der Meijden	Regional Business Developer West Africa
3	Agriterra (only Senegal)	Issouf Ouedraogo	horticulture program lead in Burkina and Senegal
4	IFDC	Marina Diboma	Country Manager, Africa
5	KIT	Rob Kuijpers	Team Leader Impact Economics
6	Advance Consulting	Maaike Cotterink	Regional Director West Africa
7	Netherlands Food Partnership (only Senegal)	Nicole Metz	Partnership Builder
8	Aeres Training Centre International	Josje Hakker	Account Manager/Trainer
9	World Vegetable Center	Pepijn Schreinemachers	Program Director - Social Sciences and Nutrition
10	World Vegetable Center	Malick Ba	Regional Directeur West and Central Africa
11	Wageningen University & Research	Marja Thijssen	Senior Advisor Seed Systems
12	SeedNL	Willem Schoustra	Director
13	SeedNL	Falaq Sade Tidjani	Seed Advisor
14	Plantum	Ivo Gariboldi	Policy Specialist genetic resources
15	Naktuinbouw	Raoul Haegens	Head of Breed Research
16	Growpact Global/Truvalu Group	Kees Veldhuijzen	Director
17	JAAP AGRO	Thomas Mulder	Business Manager
18	Takii Europe B.V.	Charles Snijders	Director of Research & Development EMEA
19	East West Seeds	Louis Youssouph Mane	Regional Sales Manager, West Africa
20	Europlant Aardappel B.V.	Niels Ottink	Export
21	Delphy	Moussa Bathily	Senior Project Manager & Senegal Country Representative
22	Bakker Brothers	Delphin Jamme	Regional Sales Manager – West and Central Africa.
23	Ministry of Foreign Affairs	Robin Breedeveld	Policy Officer Food and Nutrition Security
24	Ministry of Foreign Affairs (only Senegal)	Hugo Verkuijl	Senior Policy Advisor Food and Nutrition Security

Côte d’Ivoire: Regulatory Clarity and Direct Business Connections

The Abidjan leg, led by Director International Agribusiness Ralf van de Beek (Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food security and Nature), delivered three outcomes of direct relevance to Dutch companies:

The regulatory barrier is lower than expected. Seeds already approved within the ECOWAS framework do not require re-certification in each individual member country. This is significant news for Dutch exporters: it means faster market access across the entire West African region from a single approval process. Meetings with DSEPA, L'ANASEM, and CONASEM confirmed this and provided practical guidance on varietal introduction procedures.

B2B matchmaking delivered real leads. 19 Dutch organizations held pre-arranged one-on-one meetings with 34 Ivorian counterparts — seed distributors, producer organizations, varietal testers, and vegetable and potato value chain actors. Each Dutch participant connected with between 5 and 18 local partners. The formal program was followed by a networking reception at the Dutch Ambassador’s residence, attended by the Ivorian Minister Delegate for Agriculture Mr. Bernard COMOÉ — a signal of strong political goodwill on both sides.

Field visits identified credible local partners. The delegation visited CNRA, the national agricultural research center, to explore cooperation on varietal trials. A visit to the farm of Coulibaly Bakary (Terra Consulting)was particularly notable: an experienced grower using a self-developed soilless substrate irrigation system, with over 12 years of trialing seeds from the Netherlands, France, India, and China. He represents exactly the type of locally embedded partner Dutch companies need for reliable field demonstrations.

An internal workshop concluded this phase by mapping consortium opportunities in applied research, training, distribution, and varietal innovation — to be developed further with Ivorian partners in the months ahead.

Senegal: Scale, Ambition, and Political Support

The Dakar leg, led by Willem Schoustra (SeedNL) was organized in close collaboration with ISRA, the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research.

One figure stood out immediately: Senegal imports between 8 and 10 billion tons of potato seeds every year. For Dutch seed suppliers, this represents a substantial and largely untapped market.

The program included a panel discussion on sector challenges with government technical services, a B2B session with local horticultural stakeholders, and field visits offering ground-level insight into seed production and distribution realities. A presentation of the Doing Business Guide in Senegal gave Dutch participants a practical overview of investment procedures, administrative requirements, and the local business environment — particularly valuable for companies entering the Senegalese market for the first time.

The mission concluded on a high note: Dutch Ambassador Carmen Hagenaars and the Chief of Staff of the Senegalese Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Ibrahim Diouck, both expressed strong commitment to deepening bilateral cooperation in agriculture and horticulture.

What this means for Dutch Companies

This mission made clear that both Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal are actively seeking Dutch expertise — in varieties, trials, training, and value chain development. Key takeaways:

• ECOWAS mutual recognition simplifies regional market entry significantly
• Strong local partner availability across research, distribution, and production
• High-level political backing from both the Dutch and West African sides
• Concrete consortium leads in research, training, and varietal innovation ready to be developed

Interested in West Africa's Seed sector

Dutch companies looking to explore opportunities in Côte d’Ivoire or Senegal can contact the LAN ABI team or their RVO agricultural attaché for information on upcoming activities and follow-up missions.

Relevant links:

• Côte d’Ivoire: Center of Excellence MOYÉ
• Côte d’Ivoire: agricultural governance
• Senegal: bilateral horticultural projects
• Senegal: the annual Orange Farm event

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact us:  abi-lvvn@minbuza.nl