Mali has enjoyed a vibrant agricultural and pastoral economy in recent years, but a lack of adequate storage facilities for harvested crops and meats frequently results in significant spoilage of foodstuffs and serious financial losses for the small-scale food sellers who transport fresh goods in bulk from rural areas to consumers in the nation’s major urban markets. This situation also poses serious health risks for consumers who purchase goods that have been contaminated with salmonella and other food-borne bacteria.

ADF will provide Suppliers of Preserved Foodstuffs (ACPAM)[1] – a small business in the Bamako suburb of Lafiabougou that rents cold-storage space to sellers of fresh beef, chicken, fish, and vegetables – with financial resources to:

• Lease a large warehouse,
• Purchase a refrigerator with a 90-square-meter holding capacity that will more than double ACPAM’s current refrigerator capacity, and
• Acquire a diesel-powered generator to keep its produce cool during local power outages.

ACPAM will also receive operating capital to maintain its food stocks and provide its workers with training in financial management, equipment maintenance, and storage techniques. This training will allow the cooperative to process and store large volumes of perishables according to the highest hygiene standards.

ACPAM’s enhanced capacity will help it expand the volume of goods it currently stores by nearly 700 percent, and its annual profits are projected to rise from about US $10,500 per year to nearly US $80,000 in 2008, when the five-year project ends. Workers’ total wage payments are expected to rise by more than 400 percent, from their current level of about $US 6,000 per year to more than $26,000 in year five. ACPAM is also expected to nearly double the size of its workforce from 11 to 20 employees. The cooperative’s higher earnings will provide ACPAM’s employees, who currently earn less than the national annual income average of US $900, with an average annual income of US $1,300.

The project will be implemented with technical assistance, training, and participatory evaluation support provided by ADF's Mali partner organization, Agency for Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development in the Sahel (AED-Sahel)[2].

[1] ACPAM's French name is Approvisionnement pour la Conservation des Produits Alimentaires du Mali.
[2] AED-Sahel's French name is Agence pour l'Entrepreneuriat et le Développement Durable au Sahel.