Business | Investment
Gulf investors being enticed into modernising farming
Government set to release a second batch of farmland plots amid overwhelming need for new technology in agriculture.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 October 7, 2006
Rabat: Morocco is eager to lure more foreign investors from Europe and the Arab Gulf region to help modernise its agriculture as it prepares to lease more state-owned farms, an official said yesterday.
The government leased a first batch of state-owned farms to 173 investors, some of them foreigners, last year.
The first offer of 45,000 hectares attracted 4.7 billion Moroccan dirhams ($539.8 million).
The success of the first tranche encouraged the government to expand the lease operation to a second batch of more than 50,000 hectares as it targets larger foreign investors, especially from southern Europe and the Arab Gulf.
"I think the tender to lease the farms in the second tranche will likely be launched next month," Ahmad Hajjaji, chairman of the state farm supervisor Sodea, told Reuters.
The move was part of the government's drive to modernise agriculture, boost farming output and productivity and increase farmers' revenues.
Government ministers, including Finance and Privatisation Minister Fathallah Oualalou, had repeatedly complained that agriculture was lagging behind other sectors of the $52 billion economy.
Most Moroccan farms out of a total area of 8 million hectares are divided into small lots of 5 hectares on average.
Less than 12 per cent of farms are irrigated, with few equipped with tractors or receiving fertiliser.
Morocco's agriculture is dependent on the weather and output swings sharply because of cyclical drought.
"The offer of the second tranche involves a wide range of options, including big farms of 2,000 hectares," said Hajjaji, adding that the holdings included crops ranging from wheat to olives and citrus.
The farms to be leased and those already leased were scattered across the country and the presence of foreign investors with new technology and modern management was expected to inspire other farmers to modernise.
"We expect that these new investors with money and technoloy will be like agents of change," he added.
Hajjaji said interested investors included French, Spaniards, Portuguese as well as some from the Arab Gulf region, alongside Moroccans.
"We are already present in the European markets as well as in the UAE but more investors mean the possibility of more markets."
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