Mozambique Grain Institute, private sector agree to create Pigeon Pea Committee – ICM

The decision to create the committee was taken during a technical meeting held on Friday in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, chaired by ICM Director-General Luís Fazenda and attended by representatives of the provincial government, business associations and exporting companies, according to a statement from the public institute. The ICM added that the Pigeon Pea Committee, one of the products driving agricultural exports in northern Mozambique, particularly to India, is being established as a permanent mechanism for coordination between government authorities and the private sector, to ensure continuous coordination and “avoid dialogue only at times of crisis”. As part of this mechanism, the Nampula Commercial, Industrial and Agricultural Association (Aciana) was designated as the recognised interlocutor for the private sector and will be responsible for coordinating operators, “leading the coordination of operators and systematising matters to be submitted to the ICM”.

On the economic front, the meeting’s deliberations also focused on analysing the ICM fee for issuing certificates of origin for the export of pigeon peas, holoco and cute, with the proposal to be submitted to the competent authorities for assessment, as well as engagement with the Bank of Mozambique to find foreign-exchange solutions that favour formalised exporters. The aim is to “ensure fair competition and greater market predictability”. The parties also agreed to strengthen efforts to combat smuggling and informality, as well as create certification mechanisms to distinguish and add value to compliant operators, according to the statement.

The ICM also reiterated that the modernisation of the sector will be driven by the digitalisation of services for issuing certificates of origin for these food products, reducing face-to-face contact and strengthening traceability through a unified database of operators and the strategic use of data on prices and volumes. “As subsequent steps, the entities agreed on the formal establishment of the committee, the start of operator registration, the scheduling of quarterly meetings between the ICM and Aciana, the submission of a proposal for a minimum purchase price from producers and an export reference price, and the beginning of the transition to digital services,” the Mozambique Grain Institute concluded. In 2023 alone, Mozambique exported more than 230,000 tonnes of pigeon peas, 90% of them to India, under the 2023-2026 memorandum of understanding between the Governments of Mozambique and India.

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In 2024, those exports were marked by controversy involving the ETG conglomerate, one of the country’s main pigeon pea exporters. On 16 October, the company demanded in an arbitration court that the Mozambican State pay more than €100 million in compensation for losses arising from the judicial seizure of the company’s assets in a dispute over the legume, which was also held at a port in the north of the country.

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