Mozambique seeks to accelerate agricultural wholesale market in Maputo
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Aimnews
Mozambican Agriculture Minister Roberto Albino wants to accelerate construction of a wholesale market in Maputo province to reduce transport costs and make it easier to sell harvests. The project is to be discussed with producers and cooperatives as potato, onion and tomato farmers struggle to sell their produce, reports AIM.
The Mozambican government wants to accelerate construction of an agricultural wholesale market in Maputo province to reduce transaction costs and make it easier to sell harvests. Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Minister Roberto Albino announced this during a visit to the Horta Boa farm in Goane-1, in Moamba district, according to Mozambican news agency AIM.
Roberto Albino plans to discuss the next steps with local producers and cooperatives. A cooperative organisation already has a plot of land, whose location is to be visited to assess how the project should proceed. In the absence of a wholesale market in the province, farmers have to transport their produce to Zimpeto market in Maputo city and then return to their production areas.
Potato, onion and tomato producers are struggling to sell their harvests amid competition from imports and prices that sometimes fail to cover production costs. The minister advocated mechanisms giving priority to domestic products, while noting that imports remain necessary when local supply is insufficient to meet demand.
The 21 October visit to Horta Boa also included observation of a mechanised potato harvest across 100 hectares. The farm’s production is estimated at between 4,000 and 5,000 tonnes, and the site employs 400 people. The market project comes amid agricultural reforms focused in particular on financing and processing, discussed in the Mozambique agricultural reform and measures to better finance agricultural processing.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
