Mozambican business leaders want to draw on Thailand’s private sector expertise to increase rice production, with the aim of supplying the local market and southern Africa, it was announced today following a meeting between delegations from the two countries.
“Thailand’s experience and technology in this sector are globally recognised. Imagine the impact if this expertise were applied here in Mozambique. Producing in Mozambique, processing here in Mozambique, locally, and supplying not only our market but the entire southern Africa region,” said Amâncio Gume, vice-president of the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA), after a meeting with Thai private sector business leaders visiting Maputo.
According to the representative, a potential partnership between the two countries would allow Mozambique to increase rice production for both domestic consumption and export.
Mozambique has 36 million hectares of arable land, vast water resources and climatic conditions that allow for multiple harvests throughout the year, the CTA official noted, lamenting that “only a small part of this land is fully exploited.”
The representative of Thailand’s private sector delegation, Phong Mekthipphachai, expressed openness to supporting Mozambique with knowledge and technology to develop the agricultural sector.
“We know that you have a lot of land for agricultural production that you can use more efficiently to develop it. You also have the market here — not just in Mozambique, you can produce your products to export to Europe. That is what we can do: the collaboration and bringing to you the technology from our Thailand,” Mekthipphachai said.
For Amâncio Gume, the domestic market is guaranteed for new investments from business leaders betting on local production, irrigation, mechanisation and industrial rice processing, as well as in tourism, renewable energy, floriculture, fishing and aquaculture — all sectors in the focus of Thai investment.
“This opportunity is not just about rice. Mozambique has enormous potential in agro-processing, especially in tropical fruit processing, and the machinery this mission brings represents exactly the type of technology we need to reduce agricultural losses and create local value,” Gume said, calling for long-term investment partnerships.
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The CTA also expressed interest in facilitating the identification of opportunities and helping to turn ideas into concrete projects between the two delegations, with the goal of transforming potential into prosperity.
“I imagine a situation where the world is at war and Mozambique manages, for example, to acquire this technology from Thailand and begins producing rice at a local level. That is a great asset for us, because we very much need to feed our people,” he said.
