Madagascar - A law on organic agriculture

The rapid growth of organic exports, which reached $110 million in 2019 compared to $23 million in 2012, confirms the importance of the organic sector in Madagascar. Exports consist mainly of typical and/or high value-added products such as spices, fruits and vegetables, essential oils, shrimp, cocoa, and palm oil.

Working together with private sector partners such as SYMABIO (Malagasy Organic Agriculture Union) or CASEF (Agricultural Growth and Land Tenure Security), the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries hopes that the establishment of a regulatory framework for the sector will now allow Malagasy products to benefit from organic certification.

Today, organic farming involves 23,000 producers and 177 businesses, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MAEP). Until now, producers and businesses alike had to comply with European, American, or Japanese regulations to obtain organic certification. Thanks to this new law, the requirements for placing products on the market will be simplified; exporters will no longer need dual certification to meet the standards of importing countries.

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Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector

Access to land with secure titles remains the primary challenge for investors. This issue is particularly significant for foreign investors in agriculture. Within the framework of the PSAEP (Agricultural, Livestock, and Fisheries Support Program) and its National Investment Plan for Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (PNIAEP), the Government aims to facilitate investor access to land by identifying large areas designated as "Agricultural Industrial Zones" (ZIA). These zones would benefit from incentive schemes and a specific land tenure status. They are to be defined through consensus between decentralized structures and the local population, integrated into the National Spatial Planning Scheme (SNAT), and are expected to attract 1,000 new private investors by 2025. However, neither the PSAEP program document nor the accompanying Policy Letter provides any information regarding the procedures for allocating land and managing these zones, with the exception of a reference to this two-million-hectare area.

In early 2020, the Malagasy government allocated 60,000 hectares of arable land to an Emirati group, Elite Agro LLC, with the aim of achieving food self-sufficiency. This land is located in the Lower Mangoky plain, in the southwest of the island. The objective is to achieve food self-sufficiency by lending the land, with no compensation other than the purchase of the crops at a reduced cost, for the domestic market and potential export. The Emirati group will pay the numerous agricultural workers who will cultivate rice, corn, wheat, soybeans, cowpeas, and peanuts, for an estimated production of 1.05 million tons per year. This partnership is for a one-year trial period, after which a definitive contract may be signed.