The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) will help disburse 38 million euros (2.7 billion meticias) to ‘end the paradox of a fertile African country that needs to buy back its agricultural products from its more industrialised neighbours, who often just package them’. The initiative is part of the Mattei Plan pilot project for Mozambique.
According to a press release from the Academic Association of Nutrition and Food Safety (ANSA), the project includes the construction of an agri-food centre that will enhance local excellence and the export of products, to be built in Chimoio, in the province of Manica, in the so-called Beira corridor, a crucial area for Italian cooperation initiatives in the agricultural sector.
Paolo Enrico Sertoli, head of the AICS office in Maputo, pointed out that the location in the Beira corridor ‘is of great interest for imports and exports’, and explained that this is also due to other regional initiatives, such as projects with neighbouring Zimbabwe.
The initiative’s ambition is to create an agri-food centre that will also become an incubator, linking Italian technology transfer projects and centralising all the post-harvest phases of a range of agricultural products.
Although around 75 per cent of the population lives off agriculture, Mozambique
paradoxically imports agricultural products, which are sold abroad and then re-imported, often only packaged. The project therefore aims to create a processing, packaging, storage and distribution chain, since the cold chain in Mozambique is deficient and agricultural products are consumed locally, generating little added value.
According to Sertoli, ‘an initial technical study is currently underway to present options for the location of the centre, draw up the business plan, analyse the production chains and sketch out a preliminary “configuration” of the infrastructure.’
So far, there are no official forecasts for the realisation of the initiative, although, according to ANSA, it is estimated that it could take between 12 and 18 months from the start of construction, under the direct responsibility of the ‘Contracting Station’, which in practice is the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The implementation of the project is taking place in an electoral context, with general elections scheduled for 9 October.
