Project partner meeting in Jutland

The DMDP Secretariat was delighted to meet the partner consortia of the project ‘Economic Growth through Fruit Transformation in Ethiopia’ which works to develop, and put on the market, a healthy, affordable dried fruit snack with papaya waste as the key ingredient.

The project partners, including the Ethiopian partner Theday Agro Industry and the Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce visited Denmark for a week of knowledge sharing and product development in the laboratory of Arla Foods Ingredients. Theday Agro had brought Ethiopian spices and dried papayas with them, so the testing and developing could be done with the locally available ingredients.

The DMDP Secretariat was invited to spend a day with the partners at Arla Foods Ingredients in Jutland, and beyond interesting discussions, we were fortunate enough to taste the proto-type papaya snack bar.

Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) was also on the agenda and Irene Quist Mortensen presented Arla Foods’s approach to RBC as well as experiences from another DMDP project in Nigeria where Arla is involved. Not only was the presentation informative, but it was also a great opportunity for a discussion on the possibility of a collaboration on how to improve RBC in general. As RBC is also a key focus of the DMDP, it is valuable to see the interest and the expressions of importance amongst the partners of the projects.

International partnership projects share the disadvantages that partners are often far away from each other. Through this visit it became very apparent how much of a difference communication, planning and the visualisation of product development becomes, when you can sit face to face. It allowed more efficient communication and easier knowledge-sharing amongst the partners. The DMDP Secretariat was very happy to be able to participate, and to see the positive outcomes of the partner meeting.

Overall, the DMDP was encouraged to see the representation of the project partners, DI – Dansk Industri and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and how the project objectives is very well aligned with each of the partners contribution to a sustainable and inclusive future. With the partner Addis Ababa University, one of the local Ethiopian partners, the means of training and developing innovative and efficient techniques will foster the papaya value chain, inspire and influence the youth to explore and expand their knowledge of improved nutrition and project development.

Thank you very much for having us!

If you wish to read more about the project and its partners, click here for the project site.