Feronia is an agro-food company with operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

At the heart of Feronia is a long-established palm oil company, Les Plantations et Huileries du Congo S.A. (PHC), incorporated under the laws of the DRC. The Company owns three plantations in the remote areas of Lokutu, Yaligimba and Boteka.

When Feronia acquired 76.17% of the shares of the Company PHC from a branch of Unilever plc in September 2009, the three plantations were suffering from several years of lack of investment and disruptions caused by the conflicts in the DRC.

The Corporation’s first priorities were to rebuild the company and resume production in order to secure its future and that of more than 3,800 internal employees and so many other thousands of jobs that the Corporation generates through its presence in the region. These efforts have included the rehabilitation of the palm oil plants on the Lokutu and Boteka plantations and the construction of a new plant in Yaligimba, which began operations in 2013. The company has also rehabilitated internal road networks, implemented a program to replace palm trees that are more than 25 years old and therefore less productive with new palm trees, and is working to rehabilitate and enrich the social infrastructure.

Feronia plantations produce Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO). CPO is part of the traditional staple diet of the Congolese and, through the internal sale of Feronia products in the DRC, the company contributes to the reduction of dependence on imported products and improves food security and the quality of products consumed locally.

Feronia’s vision was to transform PHC into a profitable and sustainable agricultural business that benefits local communities, society at large and inspires investment in the region.

To achieve this vision, PHC has put in place a program of investment and improvement of its operations, skills & capacities of its local staff, through the recruitment of technical experts made available by AMSCO.

It is thanks to Feronia’s vision that the partnership between PHC and AMSCO was born. In its program of investment and improvement of its operations, skills & capacities of its local staff, PHC requested the intervention of AMSCO in the provision of experts, in order to achieve its development objectives.

Since 2016, AMSCO has placed nearly 25 experts of various nationalities to implement this development plan and, above all, to transfer skills to local staff.

AMSCO’s involvement has been in the field of:

• The implementation of the training plan for local staff and above all, carried out with this company, a project to develop local skills throughout the national territory through a program called “PHC Academy of Talents” which is underway: 48 people will be trained to prepare the succession of PHC’s management entry-level positions as part of this program, in the implementation phase.

In addition, the following initiatives are being implemented by PHC:

• Preventive driving training, organized in collaboration with the National Institute for Professional Promotion, 65 participants took part in the two-week preventive driving training in Yaligimba. The training covers such issues as good driving practices, risk anticipation and general road safety rules. It is part of the Occupational Health and Safety program, which aims to completely eliminate the risk of road accidents in the plantations.
• Four (04) hospitals, four (04) health centres and 16 clinics/dispensaries spread over the three Feronia plantations were renovated and equipment was renewed to provide medical resources to employees, their families and communities in the regions where PHC operations are located. This was done within the framework of the PHC Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP).
• Provision of clean, safe drinking water for people in the surrounding areas. Between 2016 and 2018, PHC drilled 69 wells in and around the Boteka, Lokutu and Yaligimba farms.
• As part of its commitment to best environmental practices, Feronia PHC has established a policy of collecting domestic waste from the communities of the Yaligimba plantation. The waste, which used to be burnt by households, is now sent to waste disposal centres where it is properly treated and disposed of, thus improving the health of the plantation communities.