Maputo to get new vegetable cold store facility

Login

Register

Maputo to get new vegetable cold store facility

11:59 CAT | 28 Jan 2017

Maputo is to get another facility for the safe storage of vegetables with 56 cold store units able to hold 16,000 tons of produce in total, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade has promised.

“This is an infrastructure to improve the organization and stability of the market, and will encourage both small and larger producers to leave their produce here,” Ragendra de Sousa said on a visit to the premises on the outskirts of Maputo.

Built in the 1980s, the infrastructure is scheduled for rehabilitation, having been used as a warehouse for hygiene products for 20 years.

Ragendra de Sousa says the initiative will benefit mainly small farmers by avoiding the waste that results from periodic lack of customers in wholesale markets.

“This is a lucrative business that does not need subsidies,” De Sousa said, adding that state intervention would be minimal in view of the economic self-sufficiency of the main stakeholders.

Of the existing 56 cold stores, each with a capacity to receive 480 tons of products, only seven are in operation, with the remainder awaiting rehabilitation.

Source: Lusa