© International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum
- Issue 3/2001
British-born engineer Nancy Abeid Arahamane realized that
although Mauritania had a lot of milk-producing animals, it
imported enormous quantities of milk to meet domestic demand. So
she started a company to redress the disparity. The
Nouakchott-based company, Tiviski, officially Laitière de
Mauritanie, began in 1989 by producing products from camel milk. It
has since branched out into cow- and goat-milk products. It now has
a line of 14 products and produces 13,000 litres of milk a day.
Since 1993, sales have tripled.
Ms. Arahamane got her start with a French loan of US$ 141,000,
which went to set up the business. Her original aim was to simply
create a local supply of milk. But the impact of her enterprise has
gone far beyond her own business. It has raised the incomes of the
800 nomadic herders in the collective that supplies much of
Tiviski's milk, some as far as 300 km from the Mauritanian capital
and a group that is hard to reach through traditional aid
programmes. The value of cows, camels and goats has risen over
six-fold since Tiviski started buying milk, and encourages better
care of the animals. It has also changed the landscape by
increasing the land reserved for animal pasture and provides an
outlet for the new rice agriculture of the Senegal River
valley.
One obstacle - that Mauritanians do not eat cheese - was turned
into an opportunity. Tiviski found, even created, a niche with the
production, marketing and sale of camel cheeses to foreign markets,
particularly to people who are allergic to cow's milk. However,
regulations designed to prevent problems with cow's milk still
prevent Tiviski from selling to the European Union.
Contact: Ms. Nancy Abeid Arahamane, Tiviski, B.P. 2069,
Nouakchott, Mauritania. Fax: +222 225 71 92.
Related links:
-The Way Forward
-Spices and Culinary Herbs
-Dipag, Guinea: targeting the
'natural' market
-Cotriex, Burundi: exporting
agricultural products from a country in crisis
-Cheetah Paprika, Zambia: foreign
investment turns comparative advantage into competitive
advantage
-Meskel Flowers, Ethiopia: exporting
cut flowers against competition
-Nonu, Samoa: adding value through new
products