Maputo, Mozambique, 12 June – Pineapple producers in the district of Nicoadala, in Mozambique’s Zambézia province, want to set up a processing factory to reduce the losses they experience every year, Mozambican newspaper Notícias reported.

Nicoadala, some 20 kilometres from the city of Quelimane has great potential for pineapple production as rural workers’ associations and individuals harvest over 20 tonnes per year.

“We produce enormous quantities of pineapple every year, but the lack of a factory to process it affects us quite badly because we are forced to lower our price or watch our products rot,” said Maria da Conceição, a pineapple producer cited by Notícias.

The fall in the price of pineapple has big implications for producers who are unable to recuperate the amount invested in production, which according to that producer discourages producers from continuing their activity.

Maria da Conceição said, for example, that she was able to produce enough to fill eight trucks with a capacity of five tonnes each every year, but that a significant part of production had no buyers.

The wife of the President of the Republic, Maria da Luz Guebuza, who was visiting the locations, did not promise solutions but gave assurances that attention would be given to the issue so that a small factory could be set up there.

The Nicoadala district, similarly to other districts of Zambézia, has excellent potential for production of many types of crop, including pineapple itself, rice, sweet potato and others. (macauhub)