Société de Cultures Légumières S.A.

Debt : November 2016 - September 2023

BIO has granted a € 2.6 M loan to Société de Cultures Légumières S.A., a Senegalese agribusiness.

Amount

€ 2,600,000.00

Type of investment

Debt

Development impacts

Local economic growth
Food security & rural development

Beneficiary locations

Africa: Senegal

Investment field

Enterprises

Activity

A01.11 Growing of cereals (except rice), leguminous crops and oil seeds

Organisation

Société de Cultures Légumières S.A.

Website

http://www.scl.sn/

Domicile

Senegal

More investments in

Société de Cultures Légumières S.A.

Subsidy € 19,550.00 (2022-2022)
Debt € 4,000,000.00 (2013-2021)

The Société de Cultures Légumières (SCL) produces, packages and exports fresh vegetables to the UK during the European winter season. During the European summer, the company produces and sells vegetables in Senegal.

The company operates in the region of Saint Louis (North of Senegal), on 3 different premises: Diama (335 ha), Savoigne (300 ha) and N’Galam (900 ha).

SCL intends to increase the surface available for culture on its N’Galam premises, the land where the company grows its main crops (ie. sweet corn and sweet potatoes). Indeed, the UK and European markets for sweet potato are still growing and Barfoots, SCL’s main client and shareholder, wants to take advantage of this. The investment plan is spread over 5 campaigns. SCL plans to install new irrigation pivots, build a new sorting station and acquire the necessary farm equipment (trucks, tractors…) for the cultivation of a larger area.

Development impacts

Local economic growth
The country faces a massive hard currency outflow to buy goods. As SCL sells 92% of its production to Europe, it creates a positive flow of hard currency into the country and creates a positive, albeit small, effect on the country’s hard currency reserves. If we take into account the purchases made abroad (mostly equipment and logistic costs), we reckoned that the equivalent of 60% of SCL’s sales is hard currency revenue that stays in the country (paid either to suppliers, employees, State and local communities or banks).

SCL employs 557 permanent workers and up to 2,878 daily workers, which correspond approximately to 1,756 FTE. The new development will create approximately 1,500 new jobs (of which 232 permanent). Those workers live in the villages near SCL’s 4 farms. This is one of the only “big” employers in an area in which job opportunities are scarce. SCL has effectively integrated itself with the local communities and is supported by the local stakeholders. The region of Diama in Northern Senegal has had very little development over the last 50 years and had been an area of depopulation. This situation is now turned around and Diama is an area of growth and rejuvenation as a direct result of the venue of export-oriented agro-industry.
Food security & rural development
Senegal is a net importer of vegetables, even for the ones that are largely cultivated in the country (such as rice and onions). One of the objectives of the government is to invert the balance of payments for vegetables during the Senegalese winter season (ie. from June to September), when agricultural production is lower, and hence to increase local production for the local market during this period. This is exactly what SCL does, as the company grows crops for the local market during the inter-campaign period, when the European markets are supplied by European farms