Issue 7, April–June 2019
Welcome!
 Africa is coming together for safe food! We bring you hope and determination for a healthier aflatoxin-safe future for the next generation in this seventh edition of ATTC News, and concrete milestones on the road to a sustainable commercial future for Aflasafe. Food safety continues to be big news across Africa, hitting the headlines in health and business, far beyond the agricultural niche. The world observed the first ever World Food Safety Day on 7th June, with the theme ‘Food Safety, everyone’s business’. As we tap into that growing energy, we’re working to make aflatoxin everyone’s business as we help build awareness and drive the agenda.
Love is all around for ATTC, with news of perfect pairings with partners old and new. In Senegal, the first ever private sector-funded Aflasafe factory is now in production to supply Aflasafe SN01 to Senegal and The Gambia, thanks to our matchless match with BAMTAARE Services. From Tanzania, we bring tidings of our new and dynamic partnership with A to Z, now on board to manufacture and distribute Aflasafe TZ01. We report on deepening and growing relationships in Ghana and Nigeria, and the first fruits of collaboration in Malawi. We’re loving our planet too, and with World Environment Day falling on 5th June, it feels even more appropriate to be making strides in commercialising this all-natural planet-friendly product.
 We’re also thrilled to be announcing our 1st Aflasafe for Africa Conference, fighting aflatoxin in food, to be held from 4th to 5th November 2019 in Arusha, Tanzania, with the theme ‘Business meets research for safer food in Africa’. Read on for more on this, plus our regular features: a message from our Managing Director; our latest on communications, including a deluge of coverage from across the continent, particularly Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda; plus a look ahead to what’s next, and more.
A word from the ATTC MD, Abdou Konlambigue
Our Managing Director considers the bet we made three years ago on a three-pronged strategy to bring Aflasafe to market across Africa, and how it’s paying off in leaps and bounds. More
Latest news
The Gambia and Senegal: all systems go at Africa’s first private-sector Aflasafe factory
 Please allow us to parade our latest pride and joy!
We’ve broken new ground as our happy and go-getting partnership with BAMTAARE proves productive in a quite literal sense. Africa’s first ever Aflasafe factory fully built, owned and operated by the private sector is now up and running, producing Aflasafe SN01 for both The Gambia and Senegal. Located in Kaolack, Senegal, the factory is owned and run by BAMTAARE. It will ensure Aflasafe availability and effective delivery to farmers – who were previously being supplied through imports from Nigeria – as well as boosting local economies as an employer and buyer of sorghum, used as the base for making Aflasafe. ATTC, as a proud and supportive partner, has provided extensive training, advice and oversight, and will continue to lend a helping hand as the factory gets into its stride and eventually expands. Read on for more details of the spanking new production facilities in Senegal, as well as a whirlwind photographic tour. More
Tanzania: new partnership and new era, with A to Z to manufacture and distribute Aflasafe TZ01
 “We at IITA are 100% convinced that A to Z is the best company in the entire universe to produce Aflasafe in Tanzania. We are very excited about the future of Aflasafe in Tanzania,” —Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery, IITA
The journey to safer food in Tanzania just got a turbo-boost as A to Z Textile Mills Limited takes on local production and distribution of Aflasafe TZ01, and we’re head-over-heels for our new partner. The marriage was sealed when an Aflasafe Technology Transfer and Licensing Agreement (TTLA) was signed between A to Z and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), on 7th May 2019 in Arusha, marking a major commercialisation milestone.
 “The multifaceted negative effects of aflatoxin, ranging from health to loss of trade and reduced agricultural productivity, make this fight against aflatoxin a holy cause,” said Mr Kalpesh Shah, A to Z CEO, speaking at the ceremony. A to Z aims to get Aflasafe TZ01 into farmers’ hands in time for the next planting season starting in November. The TTLA includes strict performance targets to ensure effective distribution, and with A to Z in the driving seat as our proactive and passionate private-sector partner, we’re confident we’ll soon be passing many more milestones on the way to protecting citizens across Tanzania from aflatoxin. More
Country roundups and continental views
Ghana
 A tale of matches made in Heaven, multiplied: we’ve been working with our friends in Ghana in a concerted, strategic training campaign. Our partners are the perfect matchmakers, helping us reach pivotal people, such as extension agents and agribusiness staff, and organise training of trainers – making a host of new and influential friends who will pass on their knowledge to thousands of others.
We’re focussing on fundamental understanding of aflatoxin and why it’s so important to control contamination, laying the foundations for action.
One powerful demonstration has been to ask training participants to bring along their everyday foods for aflatoxin testing – even packaged food from the shop shelf. The results? Informative, and alarming. More
 Nigeria
Since leaving home on the arm of a new partner last year, our eldest daughter, Aflasafe™, has been fortunate in building a powerful and supportive family around herself in her home in Nigeria. Those kinship bonds are set to go from strength to strength as the government re-affirms continuation of its Aflasafe programme. Nigeria’s leading maize and groundnut organisations have also rallied behind Aflasafe, while our private-sector partner, Harvestfield Industries Ltd, is driving nationwide awareness. Together, these combined combatants are an unstoppable vehicle to mow down aflatoxin, achieve safer food for Nigerians, and arrive at a wealthier, more diverse economy. More
Africawide
Our fantastic pioneer manufacturing and distribution (M&D) partners are each mapping their own path to market. They are fully applying their skills, experience and networks to produce and market a unique product for Africa, and forging new partnerships along the way. What could be better than to bring this band of M&D stars together to compare ideas, brush up core knowledge, and learn from one another on approaches they’ve taken so far?
In November, we are inviting our M&D partners – alongside other stakeholders from industry, trade, government and regional economic blocs – to our 1st Aflasafe for Africa Conference, fighting aflatoxin in food. The theme is ‘Business meets research for safer food in Africa’. M&D partners will report their progress, compare experiences and lessons learnt, and forge lasting business connections that will keep these rich conversations going. We had a sneak peek at this bright future in May, with a curtain-raiser of sorts: training for partners from four countries on Aflasafe production and use, aflatoxin testing, and other important strategies to control aflatoxin.
More
 Don’t see an update on your country of interest? Aflasafe is currently commercially available or registered in nine countries across Africa, and is undergoing development, testing or registration in nine more. For all the latest details, visit Aflasafe where I am.
New from us, and news from the world
Communications and media
The drumbeat of food safety and aflatoxin awareness is getting louder across Africa, and we’re seeing more and more understanding of aflatoxin as a health, business and financial issue. Discover cross-continental coverage, why it’s everyone’s business, and our latest communication products. More
Aflasafe R&D
R&D is bearing sweet fruits in Malawi: our two tailored products for the country, Aflasafe MWMZ01 and Aflasafe MW02, were launched in April 2019, following successful tests in which they slashed aflatoxin contamination by more than 90%. They enter the world alongside a brilliant sibling, with the handover of the Aflatoxin Research and Testing Laboratory at Chitedze Agricultural Research Station to the Government of Malawi. Anti-aflatoxin collaboration in Malawi is off to a flying start and is set to continue, with Aflasafe offering the potential to restore billions of kwacha in lost exports to the economy. The next steps will be to register the two new Aflasafe products, create a commercialisation strategy, and enter into partnership with the private sector. More
We’re also delighted to announce that Benin has joined the Aflasafe R&D fold. The quest has now begun for a tailored, country-specific product using friendly local fungi. This takes the total number of countries where Aflasafe is fully available, registered or in development to a whopping 18 across Africa.
What next for Aflasafe commercialisation?
 As November and our 1st Aflasafe for Africa Conference, fighting aflatoxin in food fast approach, we’re in countdown mode for this big business adventure for Africa, and knuckling down on conference preparations. We’ll be bringing together commercialisation partners, stakeholders and decision-makers from across the continent, catalysing connections and surfacing ideas that will shape Aflasafe’s future in the years to come.
Meanwhile, the second half of the year will also see us ramping up our efforts everywhere on aflatoxin awareness as the fundamental starting point for successful Aflasafe commercialisation, with increased and concerted awareness campaigns with partners, show-and-tell Aflasafe demonstrations and more. The heat is on for food safety everywhere! We see this in the rise in mainstream media coverage of this ongoing global dialogue and action affecting us all. For this reason, as in years past, as we will continue to work closely with journalists to spread the message on Aflasafe and aflatoxin effectively across Africa.
We look forward to bringing you more news from our partners as Aflasafe manufacturing and marketing plans become practice beyond West Africa, with the spotlight also swinging to Southern Africa.
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