Agribusiness
The Green Revolution
Madagascar is mainly an agricultural country. Considering its climatic conditions, geographic characteristics and the abundance of natural resources (forestry, fishery and environmental), the island is endowed with a huge potential for agriculture and agribusiness.
The country possesses an abundant supply of labor for agricultural development as more than 75% of the Malagasy population live in rural areas.
Geographic location
The geographic location of Madagascar enables a direct access to the Eastern African, Indian Ocean and Asian countries.
Physical characteristics
The island has an immense cultivable area, estimated at 18 million hectares, together with numerous rivers and lakes, which can be harnessed for energy supplies.
Furthermore, the soil diversity allows the exploitation of different types of crops. For instance, fruits and vegetables in the central regions, oleaginous cultures (nuts, soya), cotton and sugar cane in the South-West and North-West, and cash crops (vanilla, coffee, clove, pepper and litchis) on the East coast.
The island is gifted with several natural advantages for the development of fisheries and aquaculture; it has a coastline of 5,000 km and some 2,000 km of rivers combined with a exclusive economic zone of more than 1 millions km2, including a zone within 12 miles from coastline.
The investment opportunities in the agribusiness sector can be summarized as follows:
| Agriculture (Food) |
Agriculture (Non food) |
Agro-industry | Agribusiness (logistics) |
| Rice, com., farming, spices, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, fishery, aquaculture | Cotton, sisal, flowers, essential oils | Processed fruits and vegetables, fresh products, bio-diesel | Tools and equipment, transport, fertilizer, seeds, packaging, chilling, storing, freezing |