A week of immersion in western France for the Kenyan agri-food companies involved in the Farm’Innov acceleration programme to connect the fields of possibility between Kenya and France!
“Connecting the fields of possibility” is the signature and philosophy behind Farm’Innov, the ambitious cooperation and technical assistance programme between Kenya and France, which Valorial has been managing since early 2024 on behalf of the French Development Agency (AFD). It aims to promote innovation and improve the competitiveness of Kenya’s agricultural and agri-food sectors in order to strengthen the country’s food security and build a lasting partnership between our two nations. In the same spirit, a delegation of executives from the 14 Kenyan agri-food companies involved in the Farm’Innov acceleration programme – a major component of the project – was welcomed for a week-long immersion in France from 13 to 17 October: a truly memorable experience with four days of visits, tailor-made by Valorial for each of the Kenyan companies, based on their sectors of activity and development challenges. They were able to meet with a total of more than 40 organisations from the Valorial network in western France: companies, farms, laboratories, innovation centres, technical centres, etc.
It was a wonderful week of exchanges, discoveries and shared experiences, culminating in a morning of review and debriefing on Friday at the Centre Culinaire in Rennes, which brought together the Kenyan companies, the organisations that had opened their doors to them, and those involved in the training, coaching and consulting services of the acceleration programme: The session featured two rounds of pitches by Kenyan companies, presentations by Anne-Gael Chapuis-Mirol, Director of AFD in East Africa, live from Nairobi via video link, and Jean-Luc Perrot, Director of Valorial, quoting the words of Yves Fantou (CEO – Famille Fantou), met the day before with two Kenyan companies:
‘Don’t do what I do. It won’t work! But take inspiration from what I do and think about how you can adapt it to your own situation.’
Yves Fantou – CEO, Fantou Family
It was also an great opportunity to share surprising insights and best practices, and to start planning future collaborations between Kenyan agri-food stakeholders and their French counterparts to develop new projects!
A highly engaged and growing community is forming around this project, and through Farm’Innov, Valorial is deploying all its expertise to build bridges between the two agri-food communities, putting its experience and the strengths of its network at the service of Kenyan companies to connect and open up new possibilities.
A big thank you – asante sana to the leaders of the Kenyan companies for their energy, as well as to all the organisations we met, for their warm welcome during this week of visits.
A look back at this immersion week in France in pictures:
