Mozambican company Plexus plans to start producing cooking oil from cottonseed at an industrial plant in the Montepuez district of Cabo Delgado province in 2019, the district administrator said.

Etelvina Fevereiro told daily newspaper Notícias, in Maputo, that the Plexus production unit, which grows cotton and operates a ginning plant in the region, has the capacity to produce 16,500 litres of oil per day.

“The information we received from the managers of the factory was that it will employ more than 100 workers, all nationals, with a production per shift of 5,500 litres, which makes 16,500 litres per day,” said the district administrator.

In addition to oil, which will later be sold to existing refineries in the country, for domestic use, the same unit will produce bagasse for animal feed for domestic and foreign markets.

The province of Cabo Delgado produces, on average, around 30,000 tons of cotton per year in the districts of Namuno, Balama, Montepuez, Ancuabe and Chiure, which due to the lack of a textile industry in the province is exported to foreign markets. (macauhub)