Recently, beneficiaries of Jigeen Ñi Tamit, the programme supporting women’s entrepreneurship in Senegal (Linguère, Thiès, Tivaouane, Mbour and Joal-Fadiouth) received their training certificates and hygiene best practice kits.

However, to be able to market their products officially, they have to declare themselves to the relevant Trade and Agriculture authorities to obtain an authorisation to manufacture and market food products, called an ‘FRA authorisation’.

This authorisation must appear on the label of the product concerned, under the acronym ‘AUT. FRA No…/Year obtained’. Within this framework, the Dakar APEFE office team organised several training workshops on the requirements entailed in applying for an authorisation to manufacture and market food products in Senegal.

An initial workshop took place in Thiès on 26 July for beneficiaries in the Thiès and Tivaouane geographical departments, followed by a second one in Mbour on 6 September for those in the Linguère and Mbour departments. The purpose of these workshops is to raise participants’ awareness of the importance of obtaining FRA authorisation in agri-food processing in Senegal, and specifically in the fruit and vegetable processing industry, to inform the programme beneficiaries of the hygiene requirements to be met in their processing units and to describe the process to follow and the file to submit to apply for FRA authorisation.

A representative of the Consumer Consumption and Safety Division (DCSC) of the Domestic Trade Department was involved in the event. The event presented the DCSC, the legal framework and the administrative procedures for applying for FRA authorisation as well as the compliance and monitoring inspection and the applicable sanctions. In the format of a conference and debate, the participants then discussed their experiences and debated the problems they encountered, their fears and aspirations.

To conclude this workshop, a series of recommendations were given to programme beneficiaries. They must draw up a list of products that do not have FRA authorisation and prepare the applications. The programme proposes that they group their FRA applications for better control of the procedure and faster processing.

This awareness-raising, which helps better understanding of the FRA application process, was highly appreciated by all the beneficiaries including Ndeye Khadiome Ndong, who commented on the workshop: “It was very beneficial and enabled us to learn more about the steps to follow to obtain FRA authorisation. After all the training courses that we have received, it’s now down to us to apply good hygiene practices to be able to market our products officially!”

The Jigeen Ñi Tamit programme, implemented by the APEFE in partnership with the Ministry for Women, the Family, Gender and Child Protection (MFFGPE), is financed by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD).