The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to offer funding to support the Moroccan olive oil sector.

As part of this initiative, EBRD has committed a loan of up to MAD55m (€5m) to Al Dahra Morocco Factories (ADFAC) and Al Dahra Morocco (ADMO), the subsidiaries of Al Dahra Holding.

Al Dahra is engaged in the cultivation, production and trading of food commodities and supply chain management.

In addition to forage processing facilities, as well as rice and flour mills, the group manages and operates a global land bank of 350,000 acres.

The loan will be used by the company for the construction and commissioning of a new olive oil factory in the Fez-Meknes region of Morocco.

once completed, the manufacturing facility will be used by Al Dahra to produce olive oil, targeting local and export markets under the brand name ‘Oliva’.

Additionally, the company will use its existing olive farms in Fez-Meknes and aggregate other olive farmers in the region for distributing its products in the local, as well as international markets.

It will be EBRD’s first investment in the Moroccan oil sector and sixth in the northern African region.

Morocco is said to be one of the major olive oil-producing nations in the world, and EBRD over the past five years has been working with FAO to conduct workshops and training programmes, to further increase country’s competitiveness in the olive oil sector.

Last November, EBRD and Turkish industrial development bank Turkiye Sinai Kalkinma Bankasi (TSKB) agreed to grant a loan to Turkish flour producer Ulusoy Un.

Ulusoy Un is based in Samsun, a city in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It produces flour that is used for making a wide range of food products including, bread, biscuits, chapattis and noodles.