Onions not suitable for aid programmes for starving Africa

In April, Chayenne Wiskerke launched her initiative to help combat hunger in Africa, by starting a large-scale relief action for hungry Africans. At that time, the onion sector was struggling with enormous surpluses. She approached ministries, international aid organisations and ship owners to bring about a kind of airlift, and she contacted importers, but she didn’t manage to arrange a large-scale onion supply.

She was supported by shipping company Maersk, which was willing to ship the onions to East Africa for little money, but embassies often kept their doors closed. Dutch Minister Ploumen tried contacting them, and she had research done to see if the onions were suitable for the aid programmes of starving Africa, but that wasn’t the case, according to her spokesperson.

“We managed to import into Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Djibouti, but it concerned a number of containers each time, instead of tonnes,” Chayenne said in the Dutch newspaper FD. The largest problem, according to her, is that import levies used by many African countries when it concerns food aren’t reduced. “The African governments protect their own cultivations. I think it’s incomprehensible that they use import levies of 100% on basic food in times of actual need.”

When Chayenne managed to penetrate local markets, responses were generally positive, according to her. “The traders praised the quality of our onions. It was the first time that we've exported Dutch onions to East Africa. We showed our product to local importers. They might be able to increase pressure from the inside. Perhaps we can profit from these contacts next year. We have found a good importer for that part of Africa. I feel like we were 60% successful in our intention.”

Source: FD