UNIDO
"Somalia: business opportunities in the agriculture machinery sector"
Organized in collaboration with Federunacoma and UNIDO Somalia, ITPO Italy’s webinar “Somalia: business opportunities in the agriculture machinery sector” was successfully held on 23 March 2021, in the framework of the project funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and implemented by UNIDO.
The panel discussion was moderated by ITPO Italy Investment and Promotion Expert, Mr. Francesco Pallocca, and opened by Mr. Ygor Scarcia, UNIDO Industrial Development Expert & Officer in Charge (O.i.C.) to Somalia – who presented the interventions of UNIDO Somalia in collaboration with the local private sector for the economic growth of Somali SMEs – and Mr. Fabio Ricci, Deputy Director General of Federunacoma – who introduced the Italian Federation for Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers, the EIMA exhibition and the state-of-the-art Italian technologies in the sector. In this framework, Mr. Najib Abdi and Ms. Najma Nur – respectively UNIDO Somalia Programme and Local Coordinator – provided an insightful overview of the current economic scenario of the Somali agroindustry, with an eye to the import-export of agriculture machinery.
The webinar notably featured among the panelists several representatives of Somali organizations in the field: among these, Ms. Najma Jeylani of SOMfresh, a Somali company involved in banana production; Mr. Mohamed Yusuf Ali of Jubbaland Integrated Agricultural and Development Company (JIADC), Mr. Abdulahi Omar Abukar from SomGreen Company (SoGCo), and Mr. Abukar Barre Abdulle of Hirshabelle Multpurpose Farmers Cooperative – three organizations providing assistance, education and training services on green farming models to local smallholders and SMEs, in order to support a sustainable development of agriculture in Somalia. The Somali counterparts had the opportunity to present to the Italian audience their business activities and current needs in terms of tractors, cultivators, irrigation sprayers and further technologies.
Thanks to the concluding Q&A session of the event, the participants also had the opportunity to directly pose questions to the UNIDO panelists, who highlighted the projects and activities carried out by the Organization to foster technological innovation and strengthen value chains in developing countries, as well as the key role of ITPO Italy in promoting matchmaking activities for investment opportunities with Italian counterparts. In this sense, as a follow-up activity to the webinar, in the next days the interested participating Italian counterparts will have the chance to meet the Somali companies in dedicated B2B sessions, in order to further explore business synergies and discuss potential collaborations and partnerships in the field.
Uploaded on 23/03/2021
