The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is committing €2.5 million to Maïsadour  Maroc and Maïsadour AgriMaroc, two subsidiaries of the major French agricultural co-operative, Groupe Coopératif Maïsadour.

The funding will be used to help expand fruit and vegetable production, particularly in the southern region Souss-Massa.

“Morocco’s favourable [sic] climate conditions and its proximity to European markets make its agricultural sector very attractive for exports,” said Victoria Zinchuk, acting EBRD director for agribusiness in a bank statement. “After the EBRD’s first two transactions with Maïsadour in Ukraine, we are very pleased to support the cooperative in the expansion of its operations in the rural regions of Morocco.”

The two subsidiaries mainly produce sweet corn, berries, and a range of lettuce varieties which are produced on the company’s own farms and across a network of 25 local growers. The produce is distributed by Barfoot’s of Botley, Bonduelle, Driscoll’s of Europe and Florette in France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The company will use the capital to increase its network of contracted growers, which, in turn, will lift the region’s farmer’s production practices to meet international standards through access to Maïsadour’s technical support and market reach.

The funding will also have a positive effect on the environmental impact of the region’s agriculture industry as it will also involve a team to assist growers in the implementation of best environmental practices as are promoted by the Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) organization.

Morocco Moving Upstage

Agriculture contributes 19 percent to the Morocco’s gross domestic product (GDP), with agriculture production accounting for 15 percent and agribusiness accounting for four percent. Understanding the critical nature of an industry that feeds 30 million consumers, while also providing economic stability to 80 percent of the country’s population, the Moroccan government implemented the Green Morocco Plan in 2008- an ambitious agriculture modernization program with the goal of investing US$1.1 billion by the end of the decade in order to double the country’s agricultural GDP from US$8.5 billion in 2008 to US$17 billion by 2020.

This push by the Moroccan government to modernize and lift its agricultural sector, along with the country’s geographic proximity to both EU and African markets, and its trained, less expensive workforce, have gained the interest of investors from the U.S., Belgium, Argentina, Gabon, Senegal, Tunisia, South Africa, Spain, and Australia. As of the beginning of 2014, Moroccan has leased 100,000 hectares under terms of over 40 years by the United Arab Emirates, France, Portugal, and Spain and another 600,000 hectares are planned to be leased for agricultural projects with added value by 2020.

The first of two of the largest agribusiness deals completed in recent years was an agreement signed between Morocco and Gabon in May 2014 to create a $2.3 billion joint venture to build fertilizer factories to serve the growing African agricultural market as part of Morocco’s expansion of its investments south of the Sahara. Production capacity for the project will reach two million tons per year by 2018, of which all will be destined for the sub-Saharan African market.

The second was the November 2014 deal under which Danone paid $347 million to increase its stake in Centrale Laitiere, Morocco’s top dairy company by 21.75 percent. The purchase of the additional shares from SNI, the investment firm backed by the country’s royal family, brought Danone’s stake in Centrale Laitiere, which controls 60 percent of Morocco’s growing dairy market, to 90.9 percent as SNI’s stake is reduced to 5 percent.

—

Lynda Kiernan