The French joint venture Safir celebrated its first equity investment in Ethiopia on Wednesday June 14 at the French Embassy.
The event was held in the presence of the Ambassador of France to Ethiopia Rémi Maréchaux and senior Ethiopian government officials and several local actors.
Created in 2019, Safir is a joint venture between the French family group Nutriset, Mérieux Nutri Sciences and Bpifrance (public investment banking company).
During the celebration of Safir’s first participation in the Bless agro-food laboratory, the French ambassador to Ethiopia, Remi Maréchaux indicated that the purpose of this investment is to improve the technical capacities of the product analysis laboratory. which will allow Ethiopia to reach a level of certification of these agricultural products which will allow the development of exports.
According to the ambassador, it is an investment fund dedicated to agriculture which was set up by a French company whose first investment is here in Ethiopia with Helina agriculture aimed at achieving import substitution massive after testing in Ethiopia and then certifying Ethiopian products that are easily exported.
“There are products, in particular products specific to Ethiopia, in particular honey, but it is also true for cereals which could be exported abroad for a need for certification on health fito quality. »
Thanks to this investment, the ambassador revealed that Ethiopia is able to do analyzes to export the samples for analysis abroad.
He promised that his country would work on the development of geographical applications starting with coffee and then diversifying them into other areas, reiterating that an agreement by producers on a quality charter is essential which must be adopted.
For her part, the CEO of Nutriset and Onyx Développement Adeline Lescane-Gautier, revealed that today, thanks to the Bless laboratory, we will be able to value all Ethiopian raw materials through internationally recognized analyzes in order to be able to export them. or use them locally.
The director added “It is obvious that the first analyzes that we do at Safi are the analyzes that correspond to the national raw material export policy in order to be able to support this policy, in particular honey for example, which has a battle of our president and on which we want to be the best to help support exporters to obtain the best certificates. »
She mentioned that two major new investors will arrive to invest in Ethiopia while welcoming France’s confidence in Ethiopia and its commitment to continue working with Ethiopia for its most strategic activities, which are agro-food and its analyses.