History

11 July 2001 : The PIP’s official launch date. The programme’s aim is to give a helping hand to players within the ACP horticultural industry, forced to adjust to the new European pesticide standards. Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) are being imposed on ACP agricultural production, threatening exports to the EU.

The PIP initiative is the brainchild of the Council of ACP/EU Ministers, which stressed during its meeting in Cotonou on 23 June 2000, the importance of setting up this kind of Programme.

The PIP is initially funded by a financing agreement between the European Commission and the ACP Secretariat, then by a grant contract between the European Commission and the COLEACP, an interprofessional network set up to forge links between exporters from African, Caribbean and Pacific states and European importers and to work together to promote sustainable horticultural trade between the ACP group of states and the European Union (EU).

Initially designed for a 5-year period, the PIP is granted a 29,122 million euro budget by the European Development Fund (EDF).

June 2005 : Mid-term evaluation, whose results prove to be globally very satisfactory. This provides an opportunity to review the logical framework and to recommend an extension of the programme, accompanied by a budgetary extension in order to give the PIP the time and resources to finalise the work in progress.
The completion date of phase 1 of the PIP is postponed until 30 June 2008 and the amount of the EDF subsidy increased to 33,805 million euros. The Programme extends its field of intervention to food safety in the fruit and vegetable industry.

April 2008 : Final evaluation of phase 1 of the Programme. The PIP is active in 28 ACP States and covers 80% of the ACP horticultural export industry. During the PIP’s 7-year existence, the ACP market shares held up in the European Union. The PIP can therefore claim to have globally achieved its objectives.
The PIP is cited as an example of good cooperation practices by the WTO and the OECD.

July 2008 : The Programme enters into a one year transition phase and is granted a budgetary extension of 5 million euros.
The new demands of the European market are creating new needs among the ACP beneficiaries. Ethical and ecological trade are both new challenges to be taken up by the ACP producers and exporters.
The PIP pursues its work, in particular among the smallest ACP producers and the COLEACP prepares the ground for a second phase of the programme.