Maputo, Mozambique, 20 Aug – A new cotton processing factory will be built this year in the district of Mossurize in Mozambique’s Manica province, an investment of US$6 million the managing director of Olam Moçambique told Mozambican newspaper Notícias.

Vjwalkanta Venapati, the managing director of Olam Moçambique, a company with three cotton concessions in different province of central and northern Mozambique, said that in the mid-term the company planned to position itself at the top of the biggest Mozambican cotton producers, increasing from 12,000 tons to 60,000 tons.

In order to prevent being dependent on others to process its cotton, Olam Moçambique has decided to build a factory that is due to be ready to start working in the first quarter of 2011. Equipment for the factory is now in the process of being imported.

On the sidelines of the opening of the company’s new facilities in Nampula, Vbenapati noted that Olam Moçambique would invest around US$4 million in the 2010/2011 agricultural campaign, specifically in buying fertiliser, pesticides and other requirements for production.

Olam Moçambique currently works with 35,000 family sector producers and expects that number to rise to around 75,000. (macauhub)