AGCO (www.AGCOcorp.com), Your Agriculture Company (NYSE:AGCO), a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment, has opened a new office in the north-east of Casablanca, Morocco. The new premises are to serve as the company’s regional sales office for West and North Africa. This follows the launch of the Africa Head Office in South Africa’s robust economic hub, Johannesburg in 2017.
Morocco’s suitability as a home for AGCO is both its geographical location on the North-West of the continent as well as its key socio-economic role in the region since its return to the African Union in 2016 and support towards advancing economic integration of African countries. Agriculture is a key contributor to Morocco’s economy, accounting for about 15% of GDP while generating nearly 40% of employment. The Kingdom’s national agricultural policy, has played a key role in guiding sector development of the agri-food industry and emphasizing agricultural machinery to upgrade farm equipment.
“The continent is home to 60 % of the world’s arable land and is thus expected to play a major role in future, global food security,” explains Nuradin Osman, AGCO Vice President and General Manager Africa. “Opening the Casablanca office not only builds on our presence at a sub-regional level but also underlines AGCO’s vision and strategy for advancing African agricultural prosperity.”
According to a recent study by the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural organization (FAO) boosting productivity, fostering competitiveness and ensuring that small-scale farmers have greater access to markets are key to West Africa realizing its full agricultural potential. The region presents a great opportunity for the expansion of Agri Parks, an AGCO initiative to develop integrated agricultural centers in Africa, to support the transfer of farming techniques and provide training, advice, equipment, crop storage, processing and logistics to the farming community.
“The Casablanca office will also serve as the headquarters for Agri-Parks which represent a significantly fresh approach for agricultural production and rural transformation. The innovation of Agri-Parks is in developing infrastructure and community through agricultural mechanization,” adds Osman.
Agri-Parks take a holistic approach to farm production, crop storage and processing by grouping together key activities in one location. Highlighting the broad scope of AGCO’s product and services offering – from a full range of farm machinery to grain processing and protein production systems - the company’s role is to provide the required technology, equipment and expertise for this networked approach.
Alongside food security, a key goal of an Agri-Park is to help create high-value jobs and encourage the initialization of satellite industries including agricultural machinery workshops and farm supplies’ outlets. The objective is to focus on the establishment of an integrated value chain from farm to fork instead of selling low-value crops. A further aim is for the development of services such as agricultural contracting businesses to assist small-scale farmers in gaining access to modern machinery and technologies.
“The opening of the Casablanca office demonstrates AGCO’s strong commitment to ‘Run Africa from Africa,” concluded Osman.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of AGCO Corporation.
Media Contact:
Tshepang Motsekuoa
Manager, Communications Africa
Tel: +27 11 230 8650
Cell: +27 82 520 6651
Email: tshepang.motsekuoa@agcocorp.com
About AGCO:
AGCO (NYSE:AGCO) (www.AGCOcorp.com) is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural solutions and delivers high-tech solutions for farmers feeding the world through its full line of equipment and related services. AGCO products are sold through five core brands, Challenger®, Fendt®, GSI®, Massey Ferguson® and Valtra®, supported by Fuse® smart farming solutions. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, USA, AGCO had net sales of $9.4 billion in 2018. For more information, visit www.AGCOcorp.com. For company news, information and events, please follow us on Twitter: @AGCOCorp. For financial news on Twitter, please follow the hashtag #AGCOIR
