TOWT has been a sailing ship owner since 2011. This year, it is launching its first stopover in Côte d'Ivoire to offer a drastically decarbonized and competent transport at a competitive price. To achieve its goal, TOWT has partnered with Sogena Côte d'Ivoire, a specialist in port handling, as well as the Compagnie Fruitière for the management of calls.

"For us, it is important that the maritime world can get involved. More than a project, it is an innovative achievement that will be able to set an example and demonstrate that clean transport can be done. We will do our best to make this transport not an exception but an irreversible process that should be generalized. I think that this will change the mentality. If we can bring a drop of oil in the gear of this reflection, it will be a success. We will accompany the TOWT group to the end because we believe in it. It is not a financial issue, but a question of survival for our planet," explains Nicolas Houard, General Manager of Sogena Ivory Coast.

While today there is no alternative to carbon-based transport between France and Africa, TOWT and its partners want to offer an innovative solution.

"Ivory Coast is a true maritime country, oriented towards the sea, which understands ships. We were received with warmth and enthusiasm. We share, with the Ivorian national and port authorities, and with shippers, the same vision and the will to move forward together in favor of a truly decarbonized maritime transport, carrying meaning and hope, and strong human values," confides Guillaume Le Grand, President of TOWT - TransOceanic Wind Transport.

Ivory Coast is the world's leading cocoa producer, so it has one of the strongest potentials on the continent thanks to the chocolate market. Thus, TOWT will allow certain varieties of cocoa to differentiate themselves on the Northern markets by promoting great cocoa vintages thanks to a qualitative and societal approach based on a decarbonized and Anemos-labeled wind transport.

In 2019, TOWT signed a partnership agreement with the ARSTM (regional academy of marine sciences and techniques). With this partnership, TOWT hopes to make a concrete contribution to the training of seafarers in merchant marine propulsion, since this regional institution is in charge of maritime, industrial, port training and safety issues at sea for the fifteen French-speaking countries of West and Central Africa.

The launch of this maritime line between France and Ivory Coast is therefore an opportunity for TOWT to give a new dynamic to this partnership, by allowing ARSTM students to have access to practical training courses, evolving training modules, and to acquire experience in the outfitting of large working yachts.