`European Bank Funds Olive Oil Expansion in Morocco - Olive Oil Times

European Bank Funds Olive Oil Expansion in Morocco

By Paolo DeAndreis
Apr. 1, 2020 11:11 UTC

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced new funds to sus­tain the devel­op­ment of olive oil pro­duc­tion in Morocco.

A loan of up to MAD 55 mil­lion ($5.58 mil­lion) has been ear­marked for the con­struc­tion of an olive oil mill in the Fez-Meknes region and for other projects aimed at increas­ing the num­ber of farm­ers involved in the olive oil pro­duc­tion in the area.

The brand Oliva” was coined to help local olive oils reach inter­na­tional mar­kets. The loan is des­tined to boost the activ­i­ties of the Al Dahra Holding sub­sidiaries in the coun­try, ADFAC (Al Dahra Morocco Factories) and ADMO (Al Dahra Morocco).

While EBRD has tar­geted invest­ments for the devel­op­ment of Moroccan agri­cul­ture in the past, this is the first time that it has directed its efforts specif­i­cally to improve the pro­duc­tion means avail­able to olive farm­ers.

It comes on top of a five-year pro­gram spon­sored by EBRD, FAO and other stake­hold­ers meant to offer spe­cial­ized train­ing to the whole Moroccan food chain. The core of those projects is to increase effi­ciency and prod­uct qual­ity.

In a note, EBRD explained that Al Dahra is a leader in agribusi­ness, spe­cial­iz­ing in the cul­ti­va­tion, pro­duc­tion and trad­ing of ani­mal feed and food com­modi­ties and sup­ply chain man­age­ment. The group man­ages and oper­ates a land bank of 350,000 acres glob­ally in addi­tion to for­age pro­cess­ing facil­i­ties and rice and flour mills, with total annual pro­duc­tion exceed­ing 4.5 mil­lion met­ric tons.”

EBRD began invest­ing in Morocco, one of its found­ing mem­bers in 2012. Since then, EBRD has invested over $2.23 bil­lion in 60 dif­fer­ent projects through­out the coun­try.



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