(DTIS) Update, Volume 1 – Main report - Enhanced Integrated ...

sales of specialty coffee by cooperative unions grew from $0.3 million to $ 31.9 million. Thistransformation substantially increased the livelihoods of farmers producing quality coffee, and hascreated incentives for private actors in the sector to advocate in favor of the expansion of the direct salemodel and full liberalization of the sector.In some other countries however, poorly conducted or incomplete reforms have failed to improve theperformances of coffee sectors. Kenya, for example, used to produce high quality coffee in the 1980sand 1990s. The quantity and quality of coffee produced has dramatically declined since then, notablybecause of poor management and corruption in the large cooperatives that controlled production andprocessing. Incomplete reforms have failed to reverse this trend, as coffee processing and marketinghave remained under tight public control, and the value chain has remained plagued by inefficientpractices, insufficient support and incentives to small farmers, and lack of trust between stakeholders.Experience from Cameroon shows that complete withdrawal of government from the coffee sector canalso have detrimental effects, and that government’s role in providing support in the form of regulatoryreform and legal framework, strategic direction, access to extension services and research, is critical forsustainable development of the sector.Source: Dempsey (2006), Petit (2007), International Alert (2007), USAID (2008), World Bank (2005, 2011c), Boudreaux(2011)4. Overcoming supply-side constraints and trade barriers to increase Burundi’s horticultureexportsHorticultural products have been identified in several recent strategic documents adopted by theBurundian government as one of the high-potential sectors for diversification into non-traditionalexports (e.g. first and second PRSPs, 2008 National Agricultural Strategy). The following foodstuffshave been identified as specialty products with high export potential: pineapple, avocado, passion fruit,small bananas, papaya, mango, maracuja, cherimoya, green peas, baby vegetables, leafy greens, selectedroots and tubers, macadamia, flowers and plants. In addition to being an important source of ruralincome and employment creation, the horticulture sector offers great scope for the gradualtransformation from primarily unprocessed products to agro-processing.Horticultural products 78 are currently marginal in Burundi’s formal export basket. Horticultureexports from Burundi, which had progressively gained momentum in the early 1990s, were severely anddurably affected by the subsequent civil war and embargo. Burundi started to export cut flowers in the2000s, but this sector collapsed in 2008 with the global crisis (World Bank 2011b). Nevertheless, tradestatistics suggest that exports of fresh fruits and vegetables have picked up since 2006, principally toBelgium, and have reached almost half a million dollar annually in recent years (Figure 3.6). However,these exports of horticultural products still represented less than one percent of total exports in 2010 79 .78 Burundi’s production of fresh vegetables and fruits were estimated at 403,000 and 102,000 tons respectively in2010 (Source: FAOStat). This production is realized by around 1.4 million smallholder farmers. Product quality aswell as the on-farm mix of products is highly variable and almost always produced in small quantities (Clay et al.2007).79 Official trade statistics do not capture informal flows, and are therefore likely to underestimate the flows of foodproducts exchanged between Burundi and its neighboring country. Cross-border trade in food products is verysignificant in the Great Lakes region, notably towards Eastern DRC (World Bank 2012).65 / 153