Parc Agro-Industriel de Dingila SA

The Parc Agro-Industriel de Dingila (PAID) is the revival of a historic agricultural company that produced more than 100,000 tonnes of coffee and cotton a year until 1995. Active as a company since 2015, PAID restarted production in 2017 after more than twenty years of inactivity; it now produces and sells 3,600 tonnes of cotton, coffee and cocoa a year, integrating local farmers in the northern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With 10 sites across the former “Province Orientale”, now divided into the provinces of Tshopo, Bas-Uele and Haut-Uele, PAID aims to promote a sustainable cocoa and coffee industry through good management practices, mass propagation, modern agricultural processing, capacity building, and the economic, social and environmental development of cocoa and coffee growing for the farmers and communities of Bas-Uele province.

PAID is an innovative approach that combines advanced technology with management expertise and a local workforce. It is above all an industrial mechanism that masters the cocoa and coffee production chain, integrating smallholders and respecting the environment.

Ideally located, PAID will benefit from excellent environmental conditions for cocoa and coffee: an area largely untouched by mass agricultural production, good soils, steady rainfall and limited risk from pests and diseases. PAID will carry out all its activities on former agricultural concessions abandoned by their previous owners, in order to preserve the equatorial forest and its biodiversity. This strategy aims to protect the environment of local communities who depend on the forest for their livelihood. The key to the long-term success of the company and of its cocoa and coffee production is a win-win relationship with smallholders. They will be trained as agri-preneurs to apply modern, non-mechanised but labour-intensive farming practices, and supported so that they can earn sufficient income from a minimum area, ensuring the prosperity and well-being of themselves and their families. Full transparency on the value of their work and their produce is guaranteed.

PAID is run by experienced professionals who know the agricultural environment and are familiar with leading large projects, particularly in the DRC; we are investors and the company’s direct managers. Our partners and associates are essential to the project’s success.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is associated with the project for the selection and identification of hybrid planting material, mass propagation and propagation protocols. For cocoa, PAID has set a minimum yield of 2 tonnes per hectare, for smallholder production as well as for its private plantation. This yield is vital to the development of the region, and the direct economic effects on the living standards of the people linked directly or indirectly to PAID are striking. With all the assets needed for this initiative to succeed, PAID’s contribution to the development of the region will be crucial in terms of jobs and of income on which provincial taxes could be levied.

The philosophy of the agro-industrial park: modern techniques, rigorous management, minimal mechanisation, low pollution, and trained local agri-entrepreneurs supported in running their own businesses.

PAID is an ambitious company. It organises its growth in replicated modules, each covering 2,400 ha of private plantation and up to 10,000 ha of smallholder production. Each site is strategically located: the main site, at Buta, will be the hub of all operations, followed by Bunduki, Bambessa, Dingila, Bondo, Makongo, Bili, Titule, Aketi and Zobia.

This production model will allow the park to reach a production capacity of 100,000 tonnes a year by 2050. PAID SA is a long-term project that brings together, for more than 50 years, its owners and founders and local producers, sharing successes and difficulties.

PAID is committed to supporting the social and rural development of the province and of the DRC. An annual social plan will be drawn up with the traditional authorities and local civil society.