EU Head of Cooperation visits ITC’s EU-funded projects
EUROPEAN Union (EU) Head of Cooperation of the Delegation to the Kingdom of Eswatini, Eva-Maria Engdahl, took part in a one-day visit to partners of the EU-funded program ‘Eswatini: Promoting growth through competitive alliances’, implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC) Alliances for Action.
The main objective of this EU-funded programme is to support job creation for small farmers, entrepreneurs, and artisans. It also seeks to promote export-led growth, especially through the full utilization of the Southern African Development Community-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (SADC-EU EPA).
The visit included stops at the Vukani BoMake Cottage Factory in Ezulwini, the coffee farm of Eswatini Coffee in Elwandle, and the Guba Permaculture Education and Training Centre in Malkerns. EU Head of Cooperation, Eva-Maria Engdahl, commended the work done by the different companies.
“I am very excited and impressed by all the businesses that you have started here in Eswatini. I look forward to following you as you expand your businesses as I am sure that you will be very successful,” she said.
Meanwhile, EU Programme Officer Luis Miguel Pascoal encouraged everyone to take full advantage of the support from the EU and ITC, as this was an opportunity that few had in the world. The visit ended at House on Fire, also in Malkerns, where Engdahl visited the Black Mamba Foods shop, met 10 young and emerging businesses under the EU-ITC Artisanal Incubator Programme “Future Icons”, and met with the rest of the partners under the ITC-EU funded project for a luncheon.
Far East Textiles Managing Director and Business Women Eswatini Chairperson, Tokky Hou, said the project, which turns textile waste into treasure, was already driving sustainable growth of the textile sector.
“We have found a solution to a problem that troubles the whole world: textile waste. We cannot afford, as a country that has a high unemployment rate, to throw textile waste away. Therefore, we collect it to make different products under our factory cottages throughout the country,” she said. Hou was speaking during Engdahl’s visit to Vukani BoMake Ezulwini Cottage Factory.
She stated that the collaboration between Far East Textiles and the Vukani BoMake project had resulted in the training of 104 women and youth on garment production using recycled material, as well as setting up a cottage factory in Ezulwini and this became the 13th factory of the Vukani BoMake project.
Eswatini Coffee Co-founder Patrick Du Pont said they were currently working with a network of 12 farmers from various communities and they were also working on formalizing their growers association to increase their bargaining power, especially in the export market.
He said Eswatini Coffee had 4.3 hectares of coffee and they were expecting between five to 10 tons of produce this year.
“By 2025, we are expecting not less than 30 tons of coffee from the same area as the trees continue to grow. We are expecting them to last not less than 20 years,” he said.
Du Pont stated that Eswatini Coffee created 12 permanent jobs and about 20 seasonal jobs for coffee pickers between April and September.
“We are working very hard towards making sure that we adapt to invest and adapt to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards,” he said. He also shared that through the program funded by the EU and implemented by the ITC, Eswatini Coffee trained 120 coffee growers and these coffee growers were now part of the coffee value chain and the coffee growers’ network.
“The program also assisted Eswatini Coffee in setting up a nursery, which can grow 20,000 coffee seedlings that they produce and distribute to their growers’ network. As of today, they have already supplied and planted more than 16,000 Arabica coffee plants in all the targeted communities,” he said.
Du Pont further stated that the capacity-building initiatives also included the establishment of 28 coffee demo plots in the country and the program was also linking Eswatini Coffee to new markets, which saw them participate in the World Coffee Expo Dubai 2023 and the World of Coffee Athens 2023.
Guba Permaculture Director Sam Hodgson said Guba Permaculture Education and Training Centre had provided training and education programs for people from all over the country since 2009, especially from their neighbouring communities.
“People come here for training. They learn specific skills and concepts that they can then apply back at their homes,” Guba Permaculture Director Sam Hodgson said.
He said a lot of focus had been on food systems because they were small-scale and less costly as their students could use the material that was available at their disposal.
He also added they host a farmer’s market day and conduct farm tours every month, open to the public, and also work with young people to introduce them to the concept of permaculture.
“We have an existing group of 50 farmers and about 36 more will be coming in. We will run the selection process again in January and we will have another 15 or 20 people joining us. We are looking to bring in more people on board,” said Hodgson. He said Guba also grows chillies and spices that they predominately sell to Black Mamba Foods. “The EU-funded programme supported Guba has been able to train a total of 50 farmers. Guba incorporated them into its permaculture farmer network, and they will now be able to also supply Black Mamba Foods through Guba,” he said.
Furthermore, the EU Head of Cooperation got the opportunity to meet the 10 young participants of the Artisanal Incubator Programme “Future Icons” which is a program that is the result of an alliance between the EU, ITC, and House on Fire. This one-year program recognizes and champions Eswatini’s creative industry with the view that it holds the key to unlocking sustainable economic growth.
The ‘Future Icons’ program is designed to support, capacitate and grow these brands with a premise that, if nurtured, the creative industries can boost competitiveness, productivity, sustainable growth, employment and export potential.