A new cooking oil refinery, produced from soybeans and sunflower seeds, is being built in the city of Nacala-Porto, Nampula province, and should start operating next October.
With the enterprise it is intended to reduce foreign dependence, since the country imports 80% of cooking oil consumed in the national market.
The administrator of the RG Industrias Group, Arif Gulamo, said that the refinery’s production capacity is six thousand tons of soybean, sunflower and sesame oil and 12 thousand tons of palm oil.
“The refinery is the first experience at the level of the northern region of the country. The initial investment is 14 million US dollars destined for the installation of the refinery and the containers, but simultaneously three million dollars are being applied for the construction of the liquid bulk terminal,” he said.
In terms of new job opportunities, the plant will employ more than 90 workers, whose activities should start as soon as the industry starts operating.
About the enterprise, the governor of Nampula province, Manuel Rodrigues Alberto said that the same “will stimulate the economic agents to invest for local production, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
The governor believes it is important to define a balance between the obedience of the sanitary protocol and the need to strengthen the economy, through the reinvention of investments to overcome the difficulties imposed by the pandemic.
“Nacala is the economic capital of the province because of the Port, the Airport, and the industrial units. We are impressed with the level of adaptation. It is true that each company is reducing its labor force because of the rotation required in the sanitary protocol, but there are indications that the economy continues to function normally”, affirmed the governor.
On the occasion it was also highlighted that a soy and sunflower oil refinery is something new for the Mozambican market since it is an area that requires state-of-the-art technology and, with investments of this kind, it is intended that the country stops depending on European countries.