In 1997, IPS(WA) expanded its activities into agribusiness, a logical move given its strong impact on the development of rural areas.

The Institution joined with the Paul Reinhart Trading Company to form a consortium, which created Ivoire Coton, a company specialising in :

• the supervision of 40,000 farmers,
• cottonseed collection, transportation and ginning, and 
• the sale of seed and fibre, both locally and for export.

Ivoire Coton’s annual ginning capacity is 120,000 tons and it processes the output from some 100,000 hectares of cotton in north-western Côte d’Ivoire.

Continuing its expansion into agribusiness and leveraging the expertise developed in Côte d’Ivoire, the Institution created Faso Coton in 2004 in Burkina Faso. Faso Coton oversees nearly 20,000 farmers and processes approximately 25,000 tons of cotton seed per year.

In 2008, Ivoire Coton acquired the assets of bankrupt cotton producer La Compagnie Cotonniere Ivoirienne (LCCI) and created a new company called M’Bengue Coton, which has a ginning capacity of 60,000 tons.

IPS(WA) and partners from Burkina Faso acquired SN SOSUCO (Nouvelle Société Sucrière de la Comoé), which is Burkina Faso’s largest private employer. It operates its own sugarcane plantations on 4,000 hectares and produces 35,000 tonnes of sugar per year. Its core businesses are :

• sugarcane cultivation,
• the manufacture of light brown or white sugar (granulated and cubed),
• the packaging and sale of sugar to the local market and for export,
• the recovery of by-products and new crop testing.