FOISal produces in Cape Verde tomato organic for export

The company FOISal, group Trasacco, based in Ghana, will invest about 140 million euros in a project for the production of organic tomatoes, valued at about 150 thousand tons per year, for export, found the PANA Wednesday in the Beach town of safe source.

To that end, the company signed with the Government of Cape Verde an agreement for the transfer of a parcel of land located to the north of the island of Sal for the installation of that unit of production which is expected to create around three thousand 600 jobs.

As the executive director of FOISal, Ronald Quist, that, Tuesday, he signed, in the city of Praia, the agreement, the minister of cape verde the Economy and Employment, José Gonçalves, the option of the company in order to implement this project on the island of Sal is based on the political stability of the country, the business environment, the absence of contamination of agricultural climate dry, the temperature regular throughout the year that allow cycles of annual production without the need for the greenhouse.

He justified also the venture, which will have an annual volume of export about 300 million euros, by the proximity of Cape Verde to the european market and the labour market disciplined in the country.

“These positive factors surpassed the challenges inherent in the desalination of sea water for irrigation, and fertilization of the soil, combat the any insects, fungi and pests, infestation of birds, and the lack of experience of agricultural production on a large scale on the island,” he added.

Donald Quist explained that the investment is in the pilot project since may of 2017 on a hectare of land and with three production cycles per year to study technical requirements for obtaining tomato plants high yield, and the monitoring of any possible infestations of insects, fungi and pests.

According to him, the area will be subsequently extended to six hectares in order to obtain the certification of organic product, and start the export.

In a second phase, he added, will be the rapid development of more than 100 hectares and, in the third phase, will be made in the expansion of the project to a planted area of up to a thousand 100 hectares, with an expansion rate of planting of 200 hectares per year.

To the minister of cape verde’s Economy, it is an “investment of extreme innovation”, an island devoted mainly to investments in the area of tourism, and that will also be a very big step in the diversification of the cape verdean economy.

Jose Goncalves also noted the fact that the project provide for the construction of housing for workers on the island of Sal, where, as in Boavista, the tourism is growing rapidly, which poses great challenges to house the workers of the other islands for there move.

The lack of housing for workers on the islands of Sal and Boavista, has led to a growth in housing illegal and to the proliferation of neighbourhoods of tents,a phenomenon that the Government wants to hang.