ASSOCIATED VOLUNTEER experts

6th AVe mission to a cooperative of pork producers in Central Cameroon

SCOOPS-PIC is a cooperative of pork producers located in the Yaoundé region. Created in 2016, with the support of AVe and the In Vivo Foundation since 2017, the cooperative has finalized its project. This includes two components : on one hand developing and professionalizing member farms and, on the other hand, setting up a value chain at cooperative level by creating upstream and downstream services for farms.

A multi-skill support at the start of the cooperative.

Since March 2018, SCOOPS-PIC has been engaged in the implementation of its project. As part of an agreement between In Vivo Foundation and SCOOPS-PIC, AVe has mobilized several French experts to support the cooperative during this start-up phase :

• In March, an expert specialized in the management of pig breeding, Bernard Bernicot, carried out a diagnosis of each breeding (fifteen) and provided each member with a roadmap to improve the management of his breeding.
• In March, an expert in accounting, Denis Salaun, helped the accountant of the cooperative to set up accounting software and start accounting records according to the rules of the art.
• In May, an expert specialized in livestock buildings, Gilbert Perez, drew up plans for livestock buildings for several members of the cooperative with construction projects. The plans proposed took account of the climatic specificities of Africa.
• In May, an expert specialized in the marketing of pigs learned about the specificities of the pork market in the Yaounde Region so as to propose a marketing strategy to the cooperative.

A balance sheet after 6 months of operation

In September 2018, after 6 months of operation, it appeared essential to carry out an assessment of the first months of the cooperative's activities. Two AVe experts, Louis Jestin and Jean-François Montin have set to work on this task. In close collaboration with the accountant of the cooperative, Jean-François Montin prepared the income statement for the first 6 months. Louis Jestin analyzed the operation of the food factory, the first activity set up by the cooperative. The investigative work of the two experts leads to a double observation : the income statement shows a deficit and several dysfunctions are highlighted. At the end of the mission, the two experts presented their conclusions to the members of the Management Board of the cooperative, which was able to take the necessary decisions to reverse the trend in terms of financial results and eliminate the dysfunctions. In the end, this was a delicate mission for the two experts, because it was necessary to have a language of truth to elicit a positive reaction from the managers of the cooperative. To help them during this delicate start-up phase, the two experts established roadmaps for each manager of the cooperative.

The continuation of the partnership to set up an emerging pig sector

For the future, the option chosen is to continue the partnership between the three different partners : SCOOPS-PIC, the In Vivo Foundation which provides funding and AVe which provides diversified expertise : 7 experts (specialized in different fields) are mobilized. This support is essential because the challenge is the successful establishment of an emerging pig sector in the country.