Developing Capabilities in Mozambique's Food Processing Sector - The Role of South African Food Processing Firms and Supermarket Chains

Abstract

Food processing is a high value-added sector which brings opportunities for long-term employment, skills development and technology transfer. This paper considers the potential for developing Mozambique’s food processing industry for the purpose of enhancing the country’s industrial landscape. With local value addition being relatively weak in Mozambique and, given a sizeable presence of South African multinationals that are investing and trading in the food sector, there are opportunities to create dynamic linkages for the accumulation of productive capabilities for mutually beneficial industrialisation strategies. While more coherence amongst existing initiatives undertaken by the government of Mozambique is required, a variety of initiatives to develop the capabilities of local suppliers need to be developed for a broader regional industrialisation agenda.

Keywords: Food processing, capabilities, value chains, multinationals, industrialisation, Mozambique

JEL Classification: L52, L66, O14, O19