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Institute of Advanced Technological and Commercial Studies

Careers

Agri-industrial operations director

Linking an agricultural supply chain to an industrial unit and to a market: the agri-industrial operations director decides on investment, secures raw material supply and carries the performance of an entire site.

Linking a supply chain and a plant

Raw material governs everything: its availability, seasonality, quality and price. The director secures the upstream through contracts, producer support and sometimes shared investment. The downstream calls for constant quality and steady delivery capacity, which means sizing the plant and the inventory accordingly. Between the two, industrial operations must hold their yields. Investments are decided on all three planes at once, never on one alone.

  • Secure raw material supply across several seasons
  • Size an industrial facility and arbitrate its investments
  • Hold constant quality and steady delivery capacity
  • Build a lasting relationship with producer groups

An industry the region is building

Processing local produce

Fruit, cereals, oilseeds, tubers: units progressively replacing imported products.

Export supply chains

Coffee, cocoa, cashew, fish products: quality and traceability open markets directly there.

Food industry groups

Beverages, dairy, flour milling: structured sites looking for leaders trained in industry.

The programme data

Four values, one source. They feed the qualification page, the application form, the equivalence file and the final certificate without ever being re-entered. That single source is what makes two catalogue programmes comparable: the figures carry the same meaning and the same unit everywhere.

Expert and executive

qualification level
7
months of programme
9

Led by an instructor.

taught hours
700 h

1 credit = 25 h of work, 10 of them taught.

credits
70

Framework of the « Agri-industrial Operations Director » qualification, code TP71.

competency blocks
5

What each of the blocks covers

For each block the framework states the ground covered and the taught hours devoted to it. That precision serves at the orientation stage, then during the programme, then on exit when you have to describe what you can do. One vocabulary throughout, that of the occupation as companies practise it.

Industrial strategy and capacity
190 (27 %)
Industrial performance and costs
190 (27 %)
Upstream chain and grower relations
170 (24 %)
Quality, food safety and compliance
100 (14 %)
Executive conduct
50 (7 %)
Total: 700 taught hours
  • Industrial strategy and capacity · 190 h — Investment, capacity, seasonality, processing-versus-trading trade-offs
  • Industrial performance and costs · 190 h — Material yield, losses, unit cost, energy, continuous improvement
  • Upstream chain and grower relations · 170 h — Sourcing, agricultural contracting, raw material quality, chain development
  • Quality, food safety and compliance · 100 h — Certification, health crises, environment, dealing with authorities
  • Executive conduct · 50 h — Deciding in season, balancing volume against quality, representing the company

Leading an agri-industrial operation

This table sets side by side what genuinely prepares for this role. Credits and taught hours measure the gap between two options; fees relate that gap to a budget. Those are the three questions a candidate asks, and the three answers sit on a single row.

ProgrammeDurationCreditsTaught hoursFees
Certificate in Leading Distributed Teams · Professional certification4 months12120 h2 800 000 GNF in total
Management and Project Management programme — Bac+5 level · Master's degree2 years1201200 h6 500 000 GNF per year

The points people ask us about

Does the function cover the agricultural upstream?

It covers it through contracts and support rather than through farming: contracting with producer groups, technical support, season advances, quality control on receipt. That link is what distinguishes agri-industry from an ordinary factory.

How does the multi-site certificate relate?

Many operations combine a processing unit with collection centres spread across regions. The certificate installs remote steering, shared standards and animating a network of local managers.

Agri-industrial operations director — Careers | IHETC — IHETC