The USAID-funded TradeMali project helped Mali set mango export records three years running, organized the first value chain organization for potatoes, and championed a successful commodity storage and marketing scheme which earned predominantly female small rice and maize farmers and traders average profit increases exceeding 20 percent. New mango markets were penetrated in Europe, increasingly formal procedures and agreements were concluded with neighboring countries for potato sales, and the number of micro-finance institutions participating in the program jumped from one to seven. IBI provided technical assistance along the mango, potato, and rice value chains in the areas of business development services, communications, and gender mainstreaming. The IBI communications specialist, a Malian woman, facilitated the "potato days" meetings which assembled value chain participants from the public sector (policy, research, donors) and private sector (input suppliers, farmers, transporters, exporters, and buyer representatives from the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso). Together, the parties spent two days analyzing the previous potato campaign and planning for the upcoming season. Decisions were made regarding type and quantity of seed and fertilizer, and arrangements were reached for transportation, packaging, grading, and timing requirements. A similar "mango days" exercise was implemented for the mango sector based on an IBI-conducted gender mainstreaming analysis that noted barriers to access for Malian women along the value chain.

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