WILLAGRI
North Africa is one of the regions in the world that will offer the most investment opportunities in commercial greenhouses in 2025. This is what the results of a survey published on February 24 by the Dutch banking group Rabobank reveal. The survey was conducted among a sample of global greenhouse market players including suppliers of seeds, consulting services, and construction technology and equipment. According to the respondents, North Africa is the second most attractive area in the world for investment in greenhouse cultivation this year, behind the Persian Gulf. This is a significant improvement compared to 2024. The Maghreb ranks ahead of the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Morocco is the main driver of this attractiveness in North Africa. In the Kingdom, greenhouse production is used mainly in the horticulture sub-sector, with tomatoes as the main crop, which has benefited from the growing demand from northern Mediterranean countries, such as France. With investments mainly oriented towards low-cost greenhouses inspired by the structures developed in the Canary Islands (Canary Island greenhouses), the production of early vegetables for export has developed in hot and sunny regions such as Souss-Massa where cultivation is spread from October to June. Other crops like cucumber and chili pepper are also contributing to the growth of greenhouse horticulture in the country. According to Rabobank, these two products are becoming more competitive on the European Union market and also in the United Kingdom, which imports about 80% of its fruit and 50% of its vegetables.
In 2023, the CIF (cost, insurance, freight) price per kilogram of Moroccan cucumber on the British market was $1.45 kg, a more competitive level than that of Spain ($1.79/kg). As for chili peppers, exports have increased by an average of 6% per year over the last decade, with Spain as the main customer.
According to the Dutch banking group, environmental and social sustainability and climate and phytosanitary risk management will be keys to consolidating the success of Moroccan greenhouse horticulture on an African continent with little greenhouse equipmentAs a reminder, Africa will have a greenhouse area of about 68,500 ha in 2024, less than 2% of the world’s surface area. The world leader remains China with between 1 and 3.5 million hectares developed in greenhouses.
Source : Agence Ecofin