Message to our members and partners

Dear friends of COLEACP,

On behalf of COLEACP and the team, we are pleased to send you our best wishes for 2022, and especially we wish you and your loved ones very good health.

We are approaching this new year with cautious optimism, while launching an appeal to the whole COLEACP family to continue to mobilise our individual and collective efforts, which contribute to building a fairer and more sustainable agri-food system.

In an international context that – due to COVID and climate change – remains uncertain, volatile and complex, we are pleased to share with you the positive outlook for our association and its partners, shaped by the implementation of two new major programmes, namely Fit For Market+ and AGRINFO.

Fit For Market+, announced in December, is a five-year, €25 million programme. It aims to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by strengthening the sustainability of the horticultural sector of members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS). It is intended to help horticultural value chain actors mitigate the negative economic impacts of the pandemic, and at the same time seize new market opportunities by adopting green, low-carbon and climate-resilient strategies, developing and adopting relevant practices, skills and technologies. Fit For Market+, as its name implies, will be implemented as a continuation of the Fit For Market programme and in synergy with Fit For Market SPS. Fit For Market+ is managed by COLEACP in the framework of development cooperation between OACPS and the European Union.

AGRINFO is a new programme to inform EU partners about the ongoing development of EU regulatory and non-regulatory measures in the agricultural sector, so that these developments are known and understood, in the service of a fair, healthy and environmentally sound food system for all stakeholders. AGRINFO is funded by the EU, with €7 million over five years.

These two programmes, implemented by COLEACP, are part of the Farm to Fork strategy of the European Green Deal, which aims to accelerate the necessary transition towards more sustainable food systems. Together with the other programmes under way at COLEACP at international and national levels, they should enable us to consolidate the progress made in 2021, and thus contribute to the positive evolution of the global agri-food model, thanks to the continuous strengthening of the capacities of current and future generations of producers, entrepreneurs, consultants, technicians and all economic actors in the agricultural and food system.

This is what our “Growing People” vision is all about.
We hope to see you soon in 2022.

Until then, we hope that your professional activities, and especially your collaboration with our organisation, will contribute to giving you satisfaction and the positive energy and courage to face life with optimism.

Yours sincerely,