National stakeholder review: Mauritania validates actions to boosts exports in date and fish products

Mauritania held its national workshop to review and validate national green value chain strategies aimed at promoting intra-African trade, sustainable production, and climate change adaptation. The event was held in Nouakchott on 7-8 March 2024. It gathered around 45 national stakeholders from the government, businesses, support institutions, and academia. Discussions aimed at refining a national strategy and action plan for two priority sectors selected by national stakeholders based on export potential to AfCFTA markets in North Africa and more broadly across the continent, and the need to advance development of these sectors, including by building their resilience to climate change. Stakeholders from the selected sectors, date and fish products, identified key strategic priorities and a variety of national actions needed to meet agreed sectoral objectives.

Numerous issues were highlighted by national stakeholders. For date products they focused on:  Intensifying research and popularizing sound palm production techniques; Introducing value-added production activities in palm groves; Assessing consumer trends and preferences in Africa for dates and date products; Installing solar and other alternative energy sources in remote palm grove regions; Enhancing technical capacity for water resource measurement and management; Improving the availability of transport from remote palm grove locations to urban concentrations. For fish products issues focused on: Improving port infrastructure and access to post-catch fish processing and sanitation services in port disembarkation areas; Providing support to artisanal fishers to upgrade their fleets; Creating accessible channels for marketing and distribution of products to the Maghreb region and continent; Establishing accessible value-chain support services; Strengthening technical capacities to monitor changes fish population, migration and health due to adverse climate change impacts.

The project for the inclusion of green initiatives into national AfCFTA implementation strategies is a joint initiative led by UNCTAD and UNECA, implemented in twenty countries from all five African sub-regions. It's aim is to assist beneficiary countries in the development of green value chain strategies to promote intra-African trade and climate resilience in the context of the AfCFTA.