Senegal is weighing a high-stakes question: can a single partnership undo a decade of stagnation in its palm oil sector? With a 60,000-hectare plan and Indonesian expertise on the table, Dakar is betting that the answer is yes—but the obstacles are as vast as the ambition.
A low-key meeting in Dakar on 11 September could prove to be the turning point for a sector that has been stuck in neutral for ten years. Senegal’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Livestock (MASAE) presented an ambitious proposal to Indonesia’s ambassador: 60,000 hectares of new oil palm plantations across the centre and south of the country. That would multiply the current cultivated area by five.
Both sides are now working to set up a joint technical task force to steer the project forward, according to Senegal’s official news agency. On the sensitive details—timeline and financing—Senegalese officials have so far remained tight-lipped.
A sector hamstrung by a decade of inertia
The scale of the bet matches the scale of the backlog. FAO figures paint a stark picture: between 2015 and 2024, Senegal’s oil palm plantations never exceeded 12,000 hectares, hovering around 11,800 hectares. That stagnation inevitably dragged down industrial palm oil output, which also flatlined at roughly 14,000 tonnes over the period.
As a result, to meet relentless domestic demand, Senegal has had no choice but to throw open the import gates. On average, 148,100 tonnes of palm oil were purchased abroad each year between 2015 and 2024—peaking at 195,937 tonnes in 2017—with an annual bill averaging nearly $108 million, soaring to $172 million in 2020. That costly dependency is now squarely in Dakar’s food sovereignty crosshairs.
Indonesia: a heavyweight on the global stage
Choosing Indonesia was no accident. With production estimated at 46.7 million tonnes for the 2025/2026 season, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Asian archipelago dominates global palm oil output—and also ranks first in exports. That supremacy is built on decades of expertise in varietal selection, plantation management and industrial processing.
For Dakar, the goal goes beyond simply expanding cultivated land: it is about capturing that know-how through technology transfer and local capacity building—a prerequisite for creating a productive, better-structured industry.
A model already tested elsewhere on the continent
Senegal is not breaking new ground: other African countries have already forged similar partnerships with Jakarta. In Tanzania, authorities signed a cooperation agreement in 2025 with the Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI), covering training, technical support and skills transfer. In Nigeria, Africa’s top palm oil producer, a 2024 memorandum of understanding between local producers and GAPKI pursues the same goals: sharing knowledge and technology to boost productivity.
The question now is whether Dakar can turn the plan into reality where others have merely laid the groundwork.
