Three companies have responded to the public tender launched by the Mozambican state stakeholding institute, Igepe in December 2017 to select a strategic partner to recover the Chókwè Agro-industrial Complex (CAIC), the Mozambican press reported.
The CAIC, which cost Mozambican taxpayers US$60 million, financed by a loan from the Export Import Bank of China, “currently produces almost nothing, and is only a burden on the state coffers, which has to secure the wages of workers and the costs related to the maintenance of machinery.”
The Mediafax newspaper quoted Raimundo Matule, the managing director of Igepe, as saying that after the launch of the public tender, the Institute was contacted by several companies in January and February, and only three of them, whose identity was kept confidential, submitted proposals.
The three companies, Matule continued, are now in a second phase where they will have to submit technical and financial proposals, and this stage is expected to end on 23 March.
CAIC, located in Gaza province, southern Mozambique and inaugurated in 2015 by President Filipe Nyusi, has never been able to produce more than 12% of its installed capacity, and despite having the necessary machinery to process rice, tomato and cashew, it has never received enough raw materials from farmers to do so.
