The first African Palm Oil Congress has been organized in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire for two main reasons. The first one is to show that the culture of palm oil respects most of the international standards of environment protection. It is also a very important moment to fight against all the speculations about oil palm and health. The professionals of the sector want to show also that the sector promote a social and responsible approach in the development of palm oil in Africa.

It is important to notice that most of the companies present in Abidjan develop a social project for people around their production sites. Schools and health centers were built not only for the workers and their families but also for the neighboring people.

In addition, vaccination campaigns, food and medicine distributions, and funding of individual and collective projects, drinking water and electricity supply in most of the countries are realized by the palm oil companies. According to Christophe Koreki, president of AIPH “the palm oil producers use today new systems in the process of crude and refined palm oil productions. These new systems protect and respect the environment.

APOC has been the opportunity to remind all the strength of Palm Oil sector thanks to the expert studies showed during the meeting. These studies are mainly the methanation system in tanks or by artificial lagoon. In addition to this first process, there is also the production of electricity from biomass through waste recovery and waste plans. These two processes, methanation and biomass electricity production set the sector of Palm oil in a sustainable economic model.

APOC is one these important events that contribute to improve Cote d’Ivoire and capital Abidjan as a key destination for the African and international meetings. In fact, more than one hundred participants, experts and researchers from 26 countries in Africa, Europe and Asia attended to this event.

Most of them discover the country for the first time, and what they know about Côte d’Ivoire is that it is the world’s largest cocoa producer. Some of them mention that the first time they heard the name of Côte d’Ivoire is during the post electoral crisis the country dealt with. For the Ivorian producers, APOC was a platform to get expertise and support of the foreign experts, because most of the time, their advices are too much expansive. The first African Palm Oil Congress is a meeting the Palm oil producers need in order to work together for the future of their sector and learn from each other.