The Minister of Industry and Trade, Silvino Moreno, stressed the importance and urgency of strengthening the Line of Credit for Agricultural Commercialization (LCCA), an instrument co-financed by the Cereals Institute of Mozambique (ICM) and Gapi. Moreno highlighted Gapi’s fundamental role in implementing this credit line and acknowledged the need to mobilize more resources to strengthen it, given the growing demand and its strategic relevance.
Available throughout the country, the LCCA finances small and medium-sized traders involved in distributing the produce of hundreds of thousands of peasant families. Since 2019, the LCCA has financed 357 credit operations for a total of 425.2 million meticais, with around 40% of these operations carried out by citizens under the age of 35.
Gapi’s Northern regional director, Salomão Chaile, emphasized that the LCCA is an example of a partnership that promotes food and nutrition security and inclusive development. He highlighted the importance of agricultural marketing for food and nutrition security, pointing out that if farmers’ production does not translate into income to buy other goods and services, they will be more vulnerable.
Chaile invited public and private entities to participate in the LCCA’s financial and management structure, to strengthen the rural trade network and stimulate the production and valorization of agricultural surpluses. He concluded that it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel in terms of financial instruments to improve agricultural marketing in Mozambique.
