Maize is considered as one of the main crops and the most widely grown cereal in Mozambique. To minimize post-harvest losses, the country has been investing in the agro-processing sector in recent years.
After a first maize processing plant created and opened in 2021, President Filipe Nyusi inaugurated on last August 25, 2022 a new factory in the city of Nampula in the north of the country, that can process up to 24 400 tons of maize a year.
The new factory financed by the Executive, at a cost of nearly $2 million, is part of an agricultural development program called “sustenta”.
Mr. Nyusi said maize could transform the lives of Mozambicans through agro-industrial processing. For the authorities, this initiative to invest should be used to process and exploit the surplus of corn harvest, which will also benefit nearly 60,000 farmers in the sector.
The President added that the country recorded a production of 2.4 million tons of corn, at the end of the 2021-2022 agricultural campaign, which represents an increase of 25% compared to the previous time period (1.8 million tons). The increase resulted in a reduction of $0.18 in the price per kilo of corn compared to last year.
This growth rate, which has boosted the investing in agro-industrial processing in Mozambique, symbolizes the best performance in the sector after the 2.1 million tons produced in 2010-2011.
It should be noted that in Mozambique, maize is mainly grown in the regions of Tete, Zambezia and Manica.
