Senegal's state-owned oilseed processor SONACOS plans to invest CFA18 billion ($32 million) in an integrated peanut processing complex in the Kolda region, adding industrial capacity as the government directs a larger share of the country's crop toward local processing.

Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Guèye, managing director of SONACOS, the country's leading edible oil producer, announced the project on September 11. The complex will be built in Médina Yoro Foula.

According to information reported by local media, the facility is expected to cover several stages of the value chain, from receiving peanuts to marketing finished products, with crushing and crude oil refining among its planned operations. SONACOS has not disclosed when construction will begin or provided a completion schedule.

Industrial Processing Capacity Continues to Grow
The Médina Yoro Foula project extends government efforts to increase domestic peanut processing capacity through SONACOS. In October 2025, the state-owned company announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Focus Investment Group (FIG) to establish a new industrial facility in the Touba Special Economic Zone. The investment amount was not disclosed.

A month later, then-SONACOS managing director El Hadji Ndane Diagne said the company had secured CFA25 billion from the government under the 2026 budget to upgrade its infrastructure and existing factories. The funding is intended in part to increase processing capacity for peanuts produced in Senegal.

Once operational, the Médina Yoro Foula complex would add capacity at a time when SONACOS is expected to purchase a larger share of the national peanut harvest under the government’s new policy for the sector. For the 2025/2026 marketing season, authorities raised the company’s procurement target to 450,000 metric tons from an initial 250,000 tons.

Local Processing Policy Takes Shape
SONACOS'  investment plans come amid broader efforts by Senegal to direct more domestic peanut production toward local processing.

In November 2024, the government temporarily suspended peanut seed exports for the 2024/2025 marketing season to secure supplies for domestic oil processors and encourage local processing.

The decision marked a shift for a sector that had been heavily oriented toward exports of unprocessed peanuts. The government’s stated objective is to prioritize supplies to domestic processors before allowing any surplus production to be exported.

The shift coincided with a steep decline in peanut seed exports in 2025 and a sharp increase in crude peanut oil shipments. According to Senegal’s National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD), the country exported just 1,393 metric tons of unroasted peanuts in 2025, down from 65,308 tons in 2024.

Crude peanut oil exports, meanwhile, reached 22,441 tons, compared with 5,997 tons a year earlier. That was the highest volume exported since 2019, when shipments totaled 62,846 tons. Although Senegal has allowed peanut exports again since January 2026, work launched in August on the first multi-year framework agreement dedicated to peanuts and other oilseeds could provide a more structured environment for processors.

Authorities say the framework will establish commitments between the government and industry participants over several years, with the goal of improving industrial procurement, the viability of oil mills and the level of domestic processing.