Market Prospects for Groundnut in West Africa COMMON FUND ...

Aflatoxin-free stock carries a price premium of up to $50 per ton, which
is acceptable to purchasers, given the risks involved in accepting groundnut
with any titre of aflatoxin.
Given the priority of aflatoxin-free product for European importers and
end-users, the purchase of any groundnut involves a certain quality risk,
regardless of pre-shipment inspection and the resulting documentation of
analysis. As one buyer pithily put it, “This is not a paper business – this is a
product business!”
While international pre-shipment inspectors in one country may be
considered ‘reliable’ due to their particular track record, inspectors affiliated
to the same company in another country may not be trusted by the importer.
Like any other international franchise, quality and reliability of pre-shipment
inspection services can and does vary considerably by country, with
implications of untenable risk for importers considering new, unproven origins
– much less those that may have proven unreliable in the past.
One of the few options available to smaller or unproven suppliers is to
build and cultivate long-term relationships with a few importers, and work
through the difficult initial period of building trust, reputation and a ‘track
record’ of proven performance, in terms of product quality and its consistency,
as well as reliability of supply.
At present, only three countries – the USA, Argentina and China – are
considered to be consistently reliable suppliers to European importers. Other
countries of origin are trying to gain entry to the European market, however –
notably Sudan, Brazil, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Israel and Australia.
4.3 The United States of America
Though the quality standards of the US import market for groundnut are
considerably less stringent than EU specifications – allowing for total aflatoxin
levels of 15 ppb in edible groundnut, consistent with the Codex Alimentarius
regulations – entry into the US market has for many years been blocked by a
complex barrier of price supports, import quotas and other protectionist
legislation.
Recent years have seen considerable erosion of these trade barriers, but it
remains to be seen how promising the US market may prove for groundnut of
West African origin. The ‘allowability’ of groundnut imports as commodities
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