Nestlé inaugurated on 30th of April a new R&D centre in Abidjan in the presence of Ivorian government representatives including Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Agriculture Minister, Ibrahima Bacongo Cissé, Scientific Research Minister, Gabriel Lohoury-Guigui, Special Advisor for Scientific Research to the Head of State, and Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke.
The new R&D centre will focus on improving the quality of locally-sourced raw materials, including cocoa, coffee and cassava, and on adapting products to the nutritional needs and tastes of West African consumers. Better quality crops in West Africa will allow Nestlé to source more raw materials locally, which in turn will raise the income and the quality of life of local farmers. This is a further illustration of the principle of Creating Shared Value, Nestlé's way of doing business, which simultaneously creates value for the company and the communities in which it operates.
The new R&D centre will help Nestlé address the problem of disease and ageing plantations affecting the West African cocoa harvest every year by helping to promote the propagation of millions of high-yielding, disease-resistant cocoa trees across the region over the coming years.
Reference:
Nestle press release Nestlé opens R&D Centre in West Africa to improve local ...
